Shaping Future Leaders: NAF Student and Coach Reflections on District C’s Teamship Program

Through NAF’s partnership with District C, a nonprofit that is preparing the next generation of diverse talent for modern work, students and educators have had the unique opportunity to take part in District C’s Teamship program — an innovative internship experience through which teams of students solve real problems for real businesses. Teamship brings valuable work-based learning directly to students in an equitable way and District C’s Coaching Institute trains and certifies educators to bring the Teamship model back to their classrooms. Teamship provides NAF teachers with a framework for doing Mentored Industry Projects, and Teamship counts towards internship hours.

Recently, District C and NAF caught up with students and coaches who have participated in the program. Read on to hear more of what they had to say, as NAF celebrates Alumni Month this November! Up first is North Kingstown High School in Kingstown, RI. Stay tuned for another post this month from Clarence High School in Clarence, NY!

North Kingstown High School, Kingstown, RI

Teacher/Coach: Joy Tavano; Teacher for 23 years, at North Kingstown for 17 years 

Students: Jared S., Sam N.

Sam – Graduated in 2023 – currently enrolled at Virginia Tech and majoring in biomedical engineering, with a minor in business tech.

Jared – Graduated in 2023 – currently enrolled at the University of Michigan and majoring in data science in the College of Engineering.

Can you share the process for getting involved with District C and Teamship? 

Joy: I went through the coaching institute and immediately wanted to start Teamship at my school! I’m the Internship Program Coordinator for Business CTE and this is a great opportunity to bring the internship TO the students. We first piloted it in an after-school program and then wrote a proposal to run it as a semester-long class, with the support of District C. There was a waiting list the first year and I’m excited to continue to grow the program! 

From the student and educator perspectives, how were you introduced to Teamship and how did you feel?

Jared: I knew that I needed to do an internship and told all of my friends once I heard about Teamship! I’ve learned that the benefits are what you make of it. 

Sam: Our engineering department explained to us how to fulfill work-based learning. When I learned that Teamship could help me get there, I was very excited and always enjoyed presenting. Now that I am in college, I find myself applying the tools right away, in my first year, and it has helped to give me a head start.  

Joy: When it comes to the Teamship program, students get out of it what they put into it. As I see it, they are the managers and executives of their futures, so it’s imperative to figure out how to pull the best out of your peers and to leverage everyone’s strengths. Teamship is making the biggest difference in everything I do in the classroom!

What was the experience like, getting ready for the pitch?

Sam: The second team that I worked with solved a problem for Whirly Dogs. They wanted to live out their mission statement by hiring individuals with disabilities. We identified the problem and then broke it up into pieces to understand what the actual problem was, and used the tool ‘Take 5’ to come up with ideas to share. One team member came up with an incentive system, thinking about different jobs to take on, and then we had an “a-ha” moment. What if we made a board with all the jobs and switched them around, based on who can physically do the jobs, and included an incentive system? When we broke up the problem, we all came back with pieces to the solution we came up with. It got everyone’s brains thinking!

If a student was on the fence about Teamship, why would you tell them to give it a try? 

Sam: I’d ask them if they see themselves working in teams in the future and talk about the value of taking the course and learning how to break it down step by step. This is a great opportunity to witness real-world experience for a REAL company. It’s not like anything else we have done in school. People in the real company depend on you to come up with a real solution to a problem they need to solve. 

Joy: The class was SO FUN! Introducing psychological safety is a critical part of teamwork. While robots will have a greater presence in the future (I love tech so much and I’m not afraid of AI) this is going to make society better, because there is never going to be a robot who can find a key insight like a group of diverse humans can. My students’ futures depend on working together – every single element.

Any final thoughts? 

Jared: I just want to add that Teamship puts a big emphasis on listening and not just on speaking. This program helped me take a step back and listen to others.

Sam: Teamship also teaches you empathy. That has been a value-add for meeting new people in college and working in teams. The program has opened me up to deeper insights and makes you more empathetic. It’s a great experience! 

Joy: District C has hit it out of the park! It is such a joy to see my students reflect on what they learned, well after the time that they have graduated. It brings a tear to my eye, hearing about the experiences they had 12+ months ago and how it’s playing out in real life for their day to day in college.

To learn more about how to use District C’s Teamship as a framework for Mentored Industry Projects, please visit the NAF/District C Resources page.