Before college, many B-CC seniors look to find work opportunities that mimic the real world. Regarding internships, there are countless opportunities offered through the Child Development program as well as B-CC’s standard internship program.
B-CC senior Summer Smith shares her input as a new intern for a real estate company. Smith states, “I would say, my communication skills have gotten so much better just from writing professional emails, and with the whole interview process, just learning how to properly communicate with peers and adults is very helpful.”
She is hopeful and optimistic; the beginning of her internship has been a great learning experience, as it has promoted growth in many skills through coordination and communication. B-CC has provided significant resources for students seeking internships, the internship fair being one of them. Smith stated that, “B-CC is really good at connecting you with companies that are looking for interns. They are really efficient with connecting you to companies who are searching and in need of interns.” With this, Smith was not limited to being an intern for the real estate company she applied for, but she had also interviewed for an accounting firm and an interior design company, which gave her diverse options to cater to her varying career interests. This process gave her and other interns a significant advantage in finding the right internship.
On the other hand, B-CC senior Lorelei Keely-Gomez shared her experience as an intern at the Brain Fitness Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Keely-Gomez helps patients with TBI or chemotherapy-induced memory loss through cognitive exercises and tests like the BASI. “A typical day looks something like this: I go in in the mornings, then my supervisor tells me the tasks that she wants me to do that day, and that ranges from like small organizational stuff, like organizing the consent files, to like, help write a paper. So it really varies every day. Some days I can observe, which is also really cool,” Keely-Gomez iterates. Transitioning from an overstimulating high school environment to a quiet, adult-heavy workplace while having to stay on top of some very timely tasks, she faced challenges.
“It was hard for me to adjust to some of the expectations of my supervisor because there were other peers of mine in this internship that had years worth through high school, undergrad, and grad school, so it was definitely hard to try and write and sound professional and sound like them, versus just like a 17-year-old,” Keely-Gomez added. Despite this fact, Keely-Gomez overall found the experience rewarding, especially when observing patient sessions; she was able to have more of a personal experience in the field she aspires to work in.
In addition to these highly credible and well-sought-out internships that both Summer Smith and Lorelei Keely-Gomez mentioned, Kat Ingrassia, another B-CC senior intern, has started her internship through the Child Development program. At Rock Creek Forest Elementary School, Ingrassia works with kindergarteners. With the help of Mrs. Burrell, the Child Development teacher, Ingrassia has felt positively impacted by her students:“…one day we had the Kindergarteners draw a leader at home, and then a leader at school, and a couple of the kids drew me as their leader in school, which was really nice, and that actually made me feel really good and that I’m making an impact on their day to day lives.” This specifically stood out to Ingrassia because, whilst supervising these upcoming 6-year-olds is not an easy task at hand, she finds moments like these motivating. Ingrassia has gained a lot of understanding and awareness of the responsibility that working with young students brings: “You can’t say anything sarcastically, you can’t joke. You need to be literal. And just because they’re cute doesn’t mean you should baby them. You have to be stern because they’re there to learn not only educational values, but social values and how to be a good citizen as they get older,” Ingrassia concludes.
As pointed out by these successful seniors, B-CC’s offered internships house great opportunities for students to gain new expertise and experiences in countless fields of work, before they enter their college years. It became clear that the B-CC internship program’s dedicated efforts have already helped students build crucial skills for them to utilize in the near future.
