Bronx International High School

2008- 2009 Internship Program

 

Bronx International High School Internship Program seeks to place competent, well-prepared students in sites where they will be treated as members of a team and consistently challenged with meaningful responsibilities and work-related projects. Internships will foster enthusiasm for career development and an appreciation for the vast choices available within the professional world.

 

In a concurrent academic seminar-intensive, students will obtain the necessary resources and tools to analyze how their individual work relates to the daily operation of their site and how these fields of work affect the larger social fabric of the City.

 

Equipped with an academic and experiential understanding of the Changing City, students will build their capacity to make critically informed decisions, contributing positively to their own life, community, and larger society in which they see themselves.

 

The Internship

Internship provides students with the opportunity to explore a particular career interest, develop important workplace competencies, apply new academic knowledge and skills, develop their English skills in a professional work environment, and grow in confidence and maturity. The BIHS Internship Program will be both an experiential learning apprenticeship and an intensive academic study. Student-Interns will not only gain vital work experience contributing to personal and career development, but simultaneously each student will be engaged in an independent, critical study of his or her organization within the larger social and economic contexts of New York City. At their sites, students should be encouraged to think toward an applied learning project that attempts to synthesize knowledge gained in and around the workplace. The mentor and co-workers should expect to support and allot time for the student’s independent study and field-based research, in addition to his or her day-to-day tasks and responsibilities (refer to the Internship Seminar section of this packet for a description of the applied learning project).

 

The Internship Schedule

Internship will run from October through May, one day a week (Wednesday) with breaks for school vacations and testing periods. The students are required to work six hours per week in the afternoons or mornings. Individual students and their sites can arrange for some variations and necessary changes.

 

The Role of the Mentor

The internship mentor trains the intern to fulfill the requirements of the job and provides orientation to the workplace and that particular career field. The mentor treats the intern as a member of the team and holds the intern to the same level of accountability as the other employees. The mentor ensures that the intern meets his/her primary responsibilities to the organization, and at the same time provides impetus for growth through innovative and challenging workplace tasks. There should be on-going communication between the mentor and the intern to assess the intern’s individual progress, independent learning, and depth of study. The mentor should show interest in and support the student’s academic seminar requirements, including his or her independent research and analysis (see below for seminar details).

 

The Role of the Intern

In exchange for mentoring, the student provides the institution with reliable service. The intern is expected to be prompt, to be at internship every day that he/she is scheduled, to inform the mentor in advance if he/she will be absent, to follow through on instructions, to show initiative, and to maintain a positive attitude. The intern is expected to use the internship as a learning experience, and to observe, ask questions, and complete extensive school assignments related to internship, such as co-worker interviews and site analyses. As English language learners, BIHS students are expected to assimilate a wide range of new vocabulary and workplace norms. Interns should be eager to take on new responsibilities as their knowledge and comfort level increases. Some interns will develop and undertake an applied learning project in the second semester of their internship program.

 

The Role of the Coordinator

The internship coordinator meets weekly with the interns in Internship Seminar course. The coordinator maintains regular contact with the mentor by telephone/email and site visits. The site visits allow the coordinator to confer with the mentor and the intern about the student's progress at internship and about the internship-related assignments and projects being completed for school. In addition, the coordinator mediates any problems or difficulties that may arise during the course of internship. Coordinators also review and help students with journal entries and research paper

 

The Internship Seminar

Prior to beginning internship, students study various aspects of the world of work. Before site interviews in early October, students will work in seminar to develop resumes, personal statements/cover letters, and a basic familiarity with the professional world. Once internship begins, students will use seminar time to develop and exchange new perspectives and knowledge arising from their unique workplace experiences. Each student intern will be required to keep an internship journal, conduct co-worker interviews, create a detailed organizational and economic analysis of their organization, and gather relevant data and artifacts to be used in an applied learning project.

 

Internship Seminar will initially provide a space in which students discuss and examine everyday struggles and successes in the workplace. From the beginning, seminar students will be asked to transcend their individual circumstances and situation in order to make broad comparisons and system-wide observations. In seminar, students will be equipped with readings and resources with which to develop a critical understanding of their internship site’s internal structure and external context. Students will learn to piece together economic, political, and social factors that contribute to the societal context in which a business, non-profit, or public institution has developed. This type of information will be used collaboratively and by individual students to evaluate the purpose, function, and overall effectiveness of an organization. For a detailed description of seminar curriculum, please request a curriculum outline. Some curricular components include: