A Glimpse of the Future: Exploring Student Internships at JHS

By: Isabella Quintero

From designing houses, to helping deaf kids learn, to even lending a hand in the fight against human trafficking, Jenks high school seniors can explore a plethora of opportunities in just about any field in their internships. 

Internships at Jenks are handled through Torry Nunnelee where the students can confer with her to get their internship fit into their school schedule, depending on the internship’s availability. 

These students have the opportunity to not only participate in something unique from an every-day school schedule, but also to explore what exactly they want to pursue going into college, and in a future career

Ava Carlson (12), interns at GHD Interiors, an interior design firm in Jenks, OK. With a passion for design, in both fashion and the home interior, Carlson has learned a lot about her possible future career. 

By organizing office spaces, sorting fabric samples, and even getting to shadow and sit in on conversations with mentors, Carlson is able to pick up the tips and tricks when working in this field, getting an up close and personal view of what that life is really like. 

The process of interior designing from Carlon's point of view. 
photo credits: Ava Carlson

“They’ve been working on a huge lake house for Grand Lake and she showed me the process of the presentations and kind of also the mathematical side of things,” said Carlson. 

With a creative spark wanting to pursue something in this general field, the opportunity to witness a big project like this house being designed is so beneficial and gives her a sort of head start if she were to follow this field into college and later into a career. 

“I think the internship has been really great to see if that's something I'm really interested in for the future,” said Carlson. 

Chloe Graves (12), interns for The Demand Project, which is a non profit organization that works with women who have been in situations of domestic violence or victims of human trafficking. 

Graves has had a long-time passion for anti human trafficking, and takes every opportunity to be a part of something that makes a change in someone's life regarding domestic violence and trafficking. 

While the organization works directly with victims and advocates, there's a lot of behind the scenes that Graves has been able to take part in during this internship, as well as her time volunteering there during the summer. 

“My main contact is the volunteer coordinator for this non-profit and basically I've been doing a whole project for her like helping her organize all of the volunteers and make a master sheet so they can be emailed and contacted easier,” said Graves.

By organizing contact information, office spaces, and whatever else is required that day, Graves is able to help make the process easier for the volunteers, specifically the volunteer coordinator she works closely with. 

Not only does she get to learn from watching the volunteers and how they handle situations of this nature, but she also gets to participate in activities that help victims get justice, or even just promoting anti human trafficking. 

“One time I remember I wrote a court letter for one woman who was trying to help get custody of her children, or at least get visiting hours or something like that, so that was interesting,” said Graves. 

Being involved in something like this and actually helping victims is so special and also difficult, especially since opportunities to get involved in local non-profits aren’t being advertised enough. 

“I just feel like it’s a growing issue that nobody really likes to tackle and it’s just such a big thing but it’s so minimized at the same time,” said Graves.

Domestic abuse and human trafficking are global issues in today's world, and they have been for a long time, but if people aren't seeing this issue at face value, they aren’t going to understand just how big it is, and just how many people are affected by it in so many places around the world. 

This is a pretty big reason for why Graves wants to continue advocating for people in difficult situations of abuse, and why she hopes she’s able to reach even more people in the future. 

“In college I kinda want to do something within being a missionary and doing it internationally because there's a lot of regulations here which i’ve gotten to see at the internship that prevent you from being super effective but in other countries, specifically third world countries, they don’t have a lot of rules,” said Graves. 

In addition to this internship, Graves helped organize a “Walk For Freedom” through downtown Broken Arrow, a fundraiser for anti human trafficking with survivors and advocates speaking out to educate the public and raise awareness to this issue. 

Graves at the Walk For Freedom.
photo credits: Chloe Graves

With the help of this internship, Graves is able to get more connections and help more people as she plans for a future of advocating for these victims and hopefully changing people's lives.

Audrey Jodoin (12), Interns for Happy Hands Education Center, a deaf Christian education center, which helps deaf and hard of hearing kids from a few months old to about 5 years old, learn ASL and English, as well as incorporating Christianity into their learning. 

Happy Hands Education Center. 
Photo credits- https://happyhands.org/about/our-story.html

After taking an ASL course her junior year, Jodoin decided to continue the language, while also helping teach it to hard of hearing kids. 

“It's a very cool language and you can pick it up a lot faster than you’d think,” said Jodoin. 

Realizing how quick she was to pick up ASL, this internship is a perfect way for her to spread that knowledge to kids who struggle with the learning process due to their lack of being able to hear. 

“I was kinda nervous at first cause I hadn't really interacted with the deaf community a lot, but they’re just people so I don't know why I was so nervous,” said Jodoin.

Being a senior in highschool at 17 or 18 years old and having to decide what you want your future to look like is a big, scary task. Internships like this one provide students with the opportunity to give their future a trial run. 

“That's a big decision to make since it's like the rest of your life. I just wanted to be able to narrow down if I want to work with kids, if I want to work with older people, if I even want to do this at all,” said Jodoin. 

Jodoin has learned how the tests and screening works to figure out what language level the kids are at for their age, or if they need additional help. She's also gotten to build play areas for the kids to have hands-on learning experiences, as well as just hanging out with them.

While not having much experience in this field before this year, she’s gaining so much knowledge by working alongside her mentor, a speech and language pathologist.

“I definitely would like to be a speech pathologist, and I hope to be able to minor in ASL,” said Jodoin. 

Working alongside her mentor, Jodoin is able to pick up the tips and tricks it takes to be a speech pathologist to get her a head start for her future career. 

Despite some colleges not offering ASL, Jodoin still wants to continue to practice this language in the future to help her communicate with the hard of hearing community, and also to help her in her career. 

Annaliese Weins (12), interns at Jenks West Elementary in Miss. Madden’s 2nd grade class where she basically shadows Madden, helps her with anything she needs, and is available to the kids’ needs as well. 

Weins reading to Miss. Maddens 2nd graders. 
Photo Credits: Annaliese Weins

Working with 2nd graders twice a week, helping them with math assignments, listening to them talk, and being attentive to all the problems they come to her about, Weins has developed an additional sense of patience that is required when working with kids. 

“I think this internship is preparing me in many ways. A major one would be the responsibilities it requires of me and the real world aspect of it,” said Weins.

Handling kids is a big responsibility, especially being a teacher. Getting this real life experience of shadowing an elementary teacher and working side by side with her and the kids is an immense help for Weins if she were to choose a career like this for her future. 

“I’m considering working with children in my future career and I've considered being a children’s pastor for many years now so this is a great experience to see if working with children would be something I'm good at because it requires a lot of patience,” said Weins.

Not only do these internships give a sense of clarity for the future, but they also provide some freedom, giving a glimpse of adulthood.

As a Jenks high school student, going to the college and career office to discuss your future could be so beneficial, and if you’re interested in doing an internship your senior year, Nunnelee is the one to talk to as she has helped so many students pick the right internships to fit their path. 

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