Interns blog about experience

The Community Media Center, a non-profit public access television station in Palo Alto, CA offers internships to youth in high school and college. The interns gain valuable experience in video editing and production. They maintain a blog about the work they've been doing and their thoughts about it. The movies students produce are documentaries that educate the community about the lives of college students and high school students, among other things. Palo Alto High School's student-run newspaper ran an article about the youth program at the Media Center.
"The Media Center provides tools for teens considering a career in media to get a taste of the field," the article stated. The center does this by giving interns the freedom to use equipment for free so they can successfully produce and edit the projects they've been working on.

Intern in high school, stand out from crowd

I came across an article on fastweb.com about sniffing out internships while you're still in high school. It links to a few companies that have formal internship programs for high school students. According to the article, many organizations, such as the Smthsonian, have formal internship programs for high school students. That is a testimate to the increasing amount of high school students interested in pursuing internships.

According to Alicia Fales, coordinator of the Honors Senior Internship Program at Towson High School, 45 seniors are currently interning. When I was a student there in 2002, there were only 15 interns in the program. Students work with a mentor that provides them with an experience that can't be replicated in the classroom.

Employers give youth a chance

I found an article on an academic database. Employees realize that it is important for high school students to gain work experience before they head to college. Internships give students an idea of what they might want to study in college. Students are using internships to enhance their college applications. I found another article about the popularity of internships among high school students. In some cases, internships instill a passion within high school students to explore a certain field. They take that passion to college and find succuss.

Internships available to high school students

When people think of internships, college students come to mind. Now, high school students are taking advantage of them. Despite their lack of experience, high schoolers are relying on their interest level to land internships. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has a summer internship program for high school students. They are paired with scientists and assist them with research. Recently I got to interview Matt Stankiewicz, a senior at Parkville High School who interns at the Space Telescope Science Institute. A business client of Matt's dad helped him land his first job but his interest played a key role. Matt is currently taking data and pictures from the Hubble Legacy Archive and making it into a useable form for scientists.

Keeping students motivated

Baltimore is making process as far as education goes. There are many independent Catholic schools offering children a top notch education tuition free. Some of those schools are Mother Seton Academy, Sister's Academy in Landsdown and St. Ignatius Academy. St. Francis Academy and Cristo Rey Jesuit also target children from low income families seeking a college preparatory education. Theses schools are successful because they motivate children to stay in school and offer them support when they need it. At Cristo Rey, the corporate internship program is the key to helping students stay motivated. The program is described in more detail on the Baltimore school's website and in a Catholic News Service article. I spoke with some students about their internships and their feedback has been positive. One girl said the internship encourages her to do her school work more. They told me that it's hard for them to juggle school, an internship and extra curricular activities, but from what I gather, they manage to do it and do it well. All that activity keeps them busy and off the streets.

Innovative schools in Baltimore City

I have decided to change my topic for my multimedia package to innovative schools in Baltimore City and what they are doing to stay in school. I will do each module on a different school. I was listening to a program on Provoke Radio the other day about inner city schools giving hope to high school students. According to the Maryland Department of Education, 50% of all Baltimore ninth graders drop out of school. Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore opened thsi year to help solve this educational delimma. The high school is apart of the Cristo Rey Network which consisits of several schools across the country. The first Cristo Rey school was started in Chicago in 1998. In 1994, the school had an attendance rate of 97% and 100% of it's graduates went on to college. What makes these schools unique is that they only enroll students from economic disadvantage families. In order for the students to pay for their tuition, they must participate in the corporate internship program and work one day per week.

"Peacing it Together"

The slogran of the Community Conferencing Center is "Peacing it Together." To me this means taking the necessary steps to bring peace in neighborhoods, schools and the criminal justice system. The program is connecting the dots, finding what works to prevent conflict and then sticking to it. Conferencings are being held in places where the incidents happen -- in schools, libraries, communities, jails, ect. People are trained at the CCC and then lead conferences in these venues.