Ramping Up Internships
East Hampton High School will inaugurate a program this year to provide internships for seniors at businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other community entities.
According to Debbie Mansir, East Hampton’s programs coordinator, the internships “will be quite a bit more intensive than something you do once or twice for an hour each week.” About 30 students are expected to participate in the test run.
“Our end goal is to have every senior, if possible, be involved in some form of internship,” Ms. Mansir said in an interview last week. “By that time, a lot of them have finished all their core requirements and have enough credits. This would allow them the opportunity to have that real-world experience in a field they think they might want to look at.”
Ms. Mansir said the program would be structured within the scope of the school day so it wouldn’t interfere with sports, after-school clubs, students’ part-time jobs, or other commitments. At the end of the year, she said, she envisions students making presentations about their experiences. A meeting will be planned in September for interested students and internships would begin after the Columbus Day weekend.
Morgan Vaughan, the executive director of Local TV, which has already agreed to offer an internship, said they were incredibly valuable for students. In fact, she said, the public access TV provider’s previous executive director had been an intern.
“It’s important to be in a real, professional working environment, like an office, with people who are really doing the job so it isn’t just about having fun or doing whatever you like,” Ms. Vaughan said in an interview on Aug. 26. “This may sound strange, but I think it’s really, really good to figure out when you’re in high school what you don’t want to do. You might try it out and say, ‘I never want to have an office job,’ or ‘I never want to do videography.’ Those are good things to realize about yourself.”
LTV expects to offer its interns technical and production duties such as producing, recording, and editing video, designing graphics, and working with cameras. “They will leave with quite an impressive portfolio,” she said. “This is not a ‘you’ll be making coffee’ internship. You’ll be part of a team. That’s an important part of being in 12th grade — self-esteem and something to show in future work.”
Ms. Mansir said the internships would span law enforcement, education, hospitality, culinary arts, technical trades, health, business and finance, journalism, graphic design, engineering, environmental studies, and nonprofit fields, among others.
In addition to LTV, Ms. Mansir said the Meeting House restaurant in Amagansett, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, several departments of East Hampton town government, Meals on Wheels, and a number of doctors’ offices have signed up.