Students gain professional skills from Career Internships Program

Although many students travel, work or take courses over the summer, incoming juniors and seniors with a 2.5 GPA or higher, and sophomores with a 3.0 GPA and higher, are given the option to intern in a specific working field over the summer through the Career Internship Program, which is connected to the Regional Occupational Program (ROP).According to ROP business teacher Teri Jones, the program can "try out" different careers and choose whether or not they suit them.“One time a girl thought she wanted to be an attorney,” Jones said. “She worked at the office and was very successful for a law firm and decided she hated it because she didn’t want to work eighty hours a day.”Ishani Ganguly ('15), a student who attended the program and interned at Spin Public Relations, a company in Santa Monica and Cyberactive PR, said that she gained work experience and was able to narrow down the fields in which she wants to work."[I] learned handy professional skills like interviewing or how to look for jobs and internships," Ganguly said.According to Ganguly, taking a class in order to receive an internship is helpful because she can apply those skills from the class to her internship experience.  Aside from the class, when the program ends students are assigned a project which they will present during a final dinner. Ganguly believes that every aspect of the program adds to her knowledge and to her experience.“I learned valuable lessons in creating resumes, interviewing skills and networking,” Ganguly said. “It was a very essential experience as I will need these skills in the real world for jobs and such.”bgonzalez@thesamohi.com