Every day at the beginning of lunch, student interns line the hallway outside of Internship Coordinator Justin Ostry’s office. Some come with questions and updates about their internship while others stop by simply to say hello. Ostry introduced the internship course to WCHS last year and it has completely taken off since then, with roughly 150 students participating this year.
“Internships are for juniors and seniors,” Ostry said. “There is an application to be in the program, so a bunch of parent signatures and teacher recommendations, because many of the students I have not taught before. In February or March, the students will be able to start applying for opportunities. Some students may say I want NASA or some particular doctor’s office and they might not get that, but you will get an internship somewhere. All 153 students are at some place.”
WCHS senior Natalia Caetano has experienced the benefits of this course firsthand. With only four classes every day and an internship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Caetano is gaining vital work experience that will help her in the future.
“I have a mentor and I help her with the research she is conducting,” Caetano said. “We are studying the impact of various viruses and opioids on different parts of the brain. We use mice and my job is to make very thin slices of the brains that have been injected and put them onto slides so we can take pictures and they can be analyzed.”
Working at a prestigious institution like NIH is not exactly uncommon for WCHS. Students have all types of internships from physical therapy offices to circuit courts. There is no shortage of impressive internships, but that does not mean that these are easy to come by. The process of landing an internship is one that a student has to be incredibly committed to.
“Junior year, when you start applying, it is going to be difficult,” Ostry said. “You have your junior classes, SATs and all the stuff you are planning for. Now you have to look for an internship and have a resume and cover a letter and start applying and interviewing. If you do not hustle and you do not put that effort in you might not get the place that you wanted.”
“Hustle” is the perfect word to sum up what it means to be a student intern. It comes with fewer classes and more freedom but that does not mean that these students are not working hard. Although it may sound tempting to many students, it might not be the best fit for all.
“It can be overwhelming,” Caetano said. “I have fewer classes but it is still a lot to juggle at once. I am at my internship until about 3 O’clock every day and I still have a good workload because the few classes that I take are important ones. Applying to colleges with all of this was also difficult just because I had a lot of things going on at once. It is definitely worth it though to have these opportunities.”
Ostry is the sole coordinator of the program which comes with a lot of responsibility. Balancing teaching two sections of the Entrepreneurship class while overseeing all 153 interns is no easy task. Ostry has handled it gracefully though, developing a system for the course to run smoothly and developing relationships with the students so he can always be there for whatever they need.
“I love this job because it is not a normal teaching job,” Ostry said. “I am like a pseudo counselor, pseudo program head, pseudo teacher because the students come to me with issues, problems, college stuff, adult things and I get to be there for them. And then the kids are at a courthouse, at a physical therapist place, working with animals and so it is awesome that I get to see them do those things.”
One of the biggest benefits of internships is the idea of career exploration. The chance to see what it will be like to work in an area before committing to studying it further can be extremely beneficial. It can save time from having to take classes in college that one may not even pursue.
“I decided to do an internship because I thought it would be a good experience and would be helpful to start doing research before college because I want to do research in undergrad so I am gaining that skill and experience now,” Caetano said. “I feel a lot more confident in what I have chosen to study in neuroscience and am excited about going to college knowing that I am passionate about it from my internship.”
The internship course has taken WCHS by storm. The success of the program has been recognized by teachers and students alike. With 361 students signed up for the course next year, it appears internships are set to more than double.
“There is no loss,” Ostry said. “You are gaining actual real-world experience that you are gonna be able to share with future employers, future scholarships, whatever you are doing. The gain that you get from the professional mentorship at these sites and realizing you love the career, I think that is huge.”
