With summer coming around the corner, opportunities for school in the summer are just on the come up. Students at Park are able to reap the benefits of summer internship programs facilitated by the school. Not only does this help students in the moment, but this also allows students at Park to prepare for their future whether that be college or a job.
Sophomore Evan Scott said not only will this help him right now, this could possibly help him decide what path he wants or does not want to take.
“First of all, I think it’ll give me a good kind of idea of what field or what pathway I want to go down in my career,” Scott said. “It also pays, so that can’t hurt — that’s definitely a benefit of it.”
DECA Teacher Abigail Lugo, said this opportunity is something she sees as help to give students the nudge that allows them to see into the real world.
“Anytime we can get you guys real world experience while you’re still in the safety net of high school is better — you get to do this at no cost to you,” Lugo said. “There is no opportunity cost of what you’re going to give up because you are out of high school at that point and like you got to make money. You’ve got to figure it out. You might have to do something you don’t like for a while. We’re here in high school. We’re still in the safety net world like we want you to explore.”
According to junior Erek Bogucki, not only does the internship sound fun, a big deciding factor for him was the possibility to make money.
“Honestly, the money potentially makes 16k, which is a lot of money, and it can help me out in the future,” Bogucki said. “So looking forward to the money, but also the experience of getting another job, it’d be fun too.”
Scott said this opportunity not only looks good for college, but it might help him determine what he wants to do after college.
“One of the biggest things I’m looking forward to is just getting a good experience in the field I’m interested in, and also it looks really good on a transcript,” Scott said.
Lugo said that not only are these internships super beneficial, they might help students make decisions down the line of what future they want to pursue and what they don’t want to pursue.
“By making that a priority (the internship) and trying that out, you can really identify whether that’s something that you want to do after high school,” Lugo said. “The most valuable thing sometimes about internships or apprenticeships is it might teach you what you don’t want to do. And that is okay too. It saves you a lot of time, money and heartache down the line.”
Bogucki said that he is most looking forward to the work involvement that these internships bring to students. Allowing students to reap the benefits of these internships at Park.
“(I’m looking forward to the) work experience and probably seeing what the future is like. Life goals: learning about how to maintain those goals and worth creating a better version of yourself. And also to get a more spread out explanation of what the job is and how people that are in the working world do this position.”
