Lauren Stewart
Reporter
The Senior Internship Program (SIP), brainchild of Pricipal Tony Pavia, is new this year. The program will admit 20-30 students and match them with internships with local businesses. The deadline for applications was Dec. 14. SIP is designed to give students an opportunity to gain real world skills and hands-on experience. The hope is that students will contribute fresh vantage points and match their interests with their internship.
SIP offers internships in Education, Financial Services, Legal Services, Design, Marketing and Social work, as well as in Law Enforcement and Healthcare. The program will run from May 16 to June 10. Interns will work on-site at businesses within a 20 mile radius of NCHS for 25-30 hours per week. The hours will either correlate with school hours, or vary depending on the circumstances, allowing students to participate in their extracurricular activities.
Participants will need to coordinate with their teachers, as grades freeze on May 13. It is the senior’s responsibility of to complete all requirements given to them prior to this date.
Mr. Pavia proposed SIP several years ago and is thrilled to finally have it launched. He said that the program launch was slow to start, adding that when he had originally proposed the idea, there was tremendous interest. Greenwich High School introduced the internship program over 25 years ago and it is still operating there today.
Mr. Pavia encouraged kids to take advantage of the opportunity this program presents. He also feels that the program offers a great alternative to the familiar “senior slump.” “We do not have any prototypical student we are looking for,” he said. The program offers students the chance to work as interns in careers they would like to pursue. “Anyone with a passion for a certain career who would like to experience it could greatly benefit.”
The New Canaan Chamber of Commerce will be one of the local businesses participating in the Internship Program. “I am hoping to have an intern work with us this spring to help us develop and implement some marketing ideas that we have been trying to put together but have not had the manpower to pull off,” Executive Director Tucker Murphy said. “The good news is that since the program is new to us all we ares all in it together and can learn as we go,” she said.
Many students feel that the program will help them to determine what type of career they would like to pursue in the future. “I decided to apply to the internship program because I thought that it would be a great way to kind of get a sense for what kind of job I might be interested in, in the future,” said senior Ashley Mulhern.
Many of the seniors applying for the program are both excited and anxious. “I am really looking forward to this experience, although it is going to be hard work and weird getting accustomed to the whole process… It will be good for everyone enrolling in this opportunity,” senior Willie Gould said.
