Creating real world opportunities for my students is a
passion of mine. With the skills they
are taught in publications, I feel that our kids make the perfect interns.
Students often don’t know how to make the professional
connections. This is where I am starting
to come in. Last week I had a woman from
the American Cancer Society reach out to me to see if I had a student that
would be interested in a social media internship. I posted it on out publications Facebook page
but then also reached out to a student that I thought would be the perfect
candidate.
Everything came to a screeching halt when they asked her for
a resume. She didn’t know what a resume
was or how to create one. I texted her
some links and asked her to send me her rough draft. After a couple revisions she thought she was
ready to go. That’s when I introduced
the cover letter to her. We went through
a similar process and she was ready to apply for the internship.
I contacted my friend at the ACS to say the student’s resume
and cover letter were on their way and she said, “Wait, she’s in high
school? We are looking for a
college-aged student.”
I didn’t let that deter me.
I then ran into a former students mom this weekend. After talking for a while she asked me if I
had any students that would be interested in a social media internship. I immediately replied and asked if a high
school student would be okay and she was elated. My student sent over her
resume and now is in the hiring process.
Internships are everywhere.
Network with those in your community to see if you can help them. Most of the time, smaller non-profits are
ecstatic to have someone that knows how to use Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. By providing students with
these opportunities, you are helping to prepare student to be capable and
confident employees in the real-world.
Debra Klevens
Parkway West High School
Since you have a background major in journalism, you probably have a few contacts in the journalism field. You may already do this, but I've brought these contacts to my classroom and taken the kids on field trips to tour their publications. I think what's been the most valuable for my students however, has been job shadows. Journalists have given my students some really cool hands-on experiences and it's so rewarding as a teacher to have paved the way for that to happen.
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