What Three Summer Interns Want You to Know About Hiring High Schoolers

For many high school students across the United States, summer means sunburn, boring summer jobs, and long days in front of the computer with nothing to do. For NAF students, however, summer means something completely different: summer is when they get the chance to take all that they have learned in their NAF academies and apply it to a paid internship!

This experience is a crucial part of the NAF educational design. At NAF academies across the United States, work-based learning culminates in a paid internship, typically between junior and senior year of high school. While real-life work experience is beneficial to our high schoolers, businesses are reaping the benefits as well. That’s because hiring high school interns allows organizations to build out their talent pipeline and connect with future leaders in the industry. Innovators and future CEOs are sitting at high schools in your community right now.

This summer, NAF students participated in a variety of internships in different industries: engineering, information technology, hospitality, investing, accounting, and health care, just to name a few. We’ll let three of them tell you how NAF interns can make your business future ready!

Allison van Tilborgh, Class of 2018, Crooms High School Academy of Information, Florida

“Hiring high schoolers is an investment, but it is always worth it. Not only will those young people leave with experience to put on their resume, but their time with you will represent their first step into adulthood, independence, and personal finance,” explains Allison van Tilborgh, an Academy of Information Technology student. Allison has interned at The Leverage Group for four terms now. Why? Because they keep inviting her back – and this summer, she is managing other interns. As Allison tells us, “The Leverage Group is a marketing firm, so the intern staff maintain the technical components to keep the whole company afloat.”

Allison credits NAF with giving her the skills she needed to succeed at The Leverage Group: “NAF has really helped me break out of the status quo of what a young student is capable of. It’s taught me ‘Yes, you have opportunities all around you and it’s your responsibility to grab them!’ NAF has expanded what I thought was conventionally possible at such a young age, which in turn has changed my adult coworkers’ views of what a young person can do.”

Joshua Harper, Class of 2018, Hickory Ridge High School Academy of Hospitality & Tourism, North Carolina

An internship can be a game changer to a high school student, putting them on the path to success. At Josh Harper’s NAF academy in Harrisburg, North Carolina, he studied and perfected his skill sets. He participated in JROTC, was President of his NAF Student Board, and won first place at the North Carolina DECA Conference. But being able to flex those skills in a practical way is the important development step that will set him apart as he enters the workforce. “It’s one thing to learn something in a classroom,” said Josh, “but it’s another to apply it in the real world.” His internship at ESPN Charlotte represents crucial work experience that will set his resume apart.

Josh isn’t the only one benefiting from the internship, though. Like other members of his generation, Josh is a digital native ready to develop and improve social media strategies across all platforms. Josh tells us, “I have more than doubled ESPN Charlotte’s following on Instagram since I’ve started!” Today’s high school students have never known a world without the internet, and they have a keen sense of what does and doesn’t work on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Businesses can use high schoolers’ native understanding of tech to their advantage.

Alexandra Rodriguez, Class of 2018, Justin F. Kimball High School Academy of Engineering, Texas

High school students are go-getters who are up for the task. They are energetic and ambitious, with the enthusiasm to get jobs done efficiently and offer real value to their employers. Alexandra Rodriguez, an Academy of Engineering student, is an achiever in every sense of the word. As a rising senior, Alexandra has already begun to pursue opportunities in robotics and machine learning outside of her normal studies. This summer, she had a chance to master something new. At her internship with Verizon Wireless, Alexandra learned how to use PuTTY, a software coding program: “The easy part of PuTTY is learning the commands. The harder functions are understanding them and making them work for the program. Now that I’ve learned LINUX commands and coding, I have skills that are in demand at any business.” NAF students have the capacity and drive to learn complex programs.

NAF students contributed value and fresh ideas to internship employers all across the country. As NAF prepares for the next school year, we strive to connect thousands more students to paid internships Advocating for internships in your community or at your company will allow students like Alexandra, Josh, and Allison to complete work of value to businesses while gaining the skills they need to be future ready! For more information on providing internships to NAF students and the innovative strategies NAF has for increasing opportunity, click here.