South will reintroduce a class called Internship for the 2023-2024 school year, Dawn Hall, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Instructional Supervisor, said. The Internship class will be a semester long and is an opportunity for students to explore potential future careers, Internship Teacher Rosie McManamon added.

The course was last offered five years ago, but was stopped due to objections on eighth-block classes, classes that must be requested to replace a student’s Structured Resource Time (SRT), McManamon said. However, with the support of Principal Dr. Barbara Georges, the course was reintroduced for next year, she added.

“I originally taught the class, so I proposed [to bring it back] this year,” McManamon said. “Dr. Georges came from a school where [Internship] was very successful, so she’s in full support of [the course].”

When students enrolled previously, they completed a Google Form listing jobs with available internships, McManamon said. The CTE Department is currently reaching out to businesses that are available to take on high school interns, and at the beginning of the school year, students will be matched with internships based on their preferences, McManamon explained. 

“The [course] will help students figure out the career they want by [giving them] early exposure,” McManamon said. “It is better that they are [figuring out interests] in high school rather than college.”

The class will meet during Block 4 once a week and act as an early release during other days so the students can attend their internships, Korienek said. Students will be required to provide their own transportation and complete 60 work hours in their internship, McManamon added.

In class, students will focus on career readiness, creating resumes, and working on job-related skills, McManamon said. Teachers will also check in with students, discussing and collecting information on what they’ve learned from their internship, she added.

Despite considerable student interest, the class is restricted to 150 seniors because of the limited number of available spots during Block 4, McManamon said. 

For the Internship course, McManamon’s main goal is for her students to branch out and gain work experience before leaving high school.

“[Internship was] brought on [because it is] important for high schoolers to get hands-on experience and learn about a career before making big decisions about their future,” McManamon said.