Before they leave their high school years behind them, MHS seniors have the opportunity to obtain an internship in a field similar to one they plan on studying. Eligible students will leave the high school during the day to work on their assigned profession. Under the instruction of a trained guide, seniors can get internships in Accounting, Business, Hospitality/Tourism, Medical Field, Social Work, Marketing/management, Athletic training/physical therapy, Environmental Science, Automotive technology, Real Estate, Computer Science, Medical secretary, and Outward bound/outdoor education.
The senior internship committee is led by special education teacher Patricia Laidley and guidance counselor Taryn Belowsky, along with MHS English teachers Pasquale DiBenedetto, Abbey Dick, Robin Doherty, Beverly Nyman, and Jill Suskind, science teachers Ashley Freeman and Brian Morrison, business teacher Beth Horwitz, Spanish teacher Mar Marjomaa, guidance counselors Susan Lessard and Victoria Lipinski, librarian Lucia Musilli, and Jenkins house principal Kevin Kilbride.
Students will begin their internship on April 8th and end their work on May 22nd. The guide is a specialist who is knowledgeable within the intern’s field of interest. Each intern is required to seek the assistance of a guide. The guide will work closely with the intern and will share his or her expertise and knowledge, in which both the student and guide will benefit from each other’s diverse ideas and perspectives.
After a week at an intern site, students are required to fill out log sheets to keep track of their performance and work hours, which they will then render into a four to five page paper and presentation.
According to Laidley and Belowsky, the paper will be required to have “a description of their internship and the steps taken to complete their project or tasks performed at intern site,” as well as “a description of the reasons why they chose this project or intern site, a description of any difficulties encountered during the course of their project or at the intern site and how they solved them” and “a conclusion of the final results of their project and what they have learned from the experience.”
The presentation can be displayed in many different mediums, such as a video, a musical selection, a thesis defence, a three dimensional model, or any other physical and written representations of their project.
A Senior Internship Exhibition will be held on May 27th, 2015 in the Finn Gym from 9:00 am to 12:00 p.m. Seniors will share their learning experiences from their internships in their aforementioned paper and presentation, detailing their various experiences and outcomes.
Because getting an internship is one of the best ways to prepare a person for the post-graduation world, MHS students are fortunate to have these opportunities at their fingertips.
