Students who just completed a summer internship in a new regional program said they got a unique look inside the world of work.
The students joined employers and community leaders in a celebration Wednesday marking the completion of the first year of the program organized by the Will County Center for Economic Development.
“I just felt I was more involved in the workplace,” Angela Ayivor, a graduate of Joliet Central High School who has had part-time jobs before, said of her experience working with the dispatch department at the Pace Heritage Division – Plainfield Garage. “I felt like I learned a lot.”
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Thirty-eight students from Joliet Central and Joliet West high schools were interns in the inaugural year of the program, which included 25 employers.
In its first year, the program included only the Joliet Township High School District.
“We’re going to be expanding this program to all Will County high school students next year, so we have a lot of work to do,” Kayla Sorensen, director of investor relations for the CED, told the gathering.
So far, Sorensen said, the CED has commitments for next year from the Joliet, Plainfield and Lockport school districts as well as Joliet Catholic Academy.
Interns at the event appeared enthusiastic about their experience.
“It was a lot bigger than I expected,” Reid Hogan, a Joliet West graduate who also worked at the Pace garage, said of the workplace. “They had a lot more buses than I thought. It was always busy, which surprised me.”
Hogan, who worked in the parts department, said he also was surprised by the “collaborative” relationship between bosses and workers.
The workplace is becoming more collaborative all the time, especially because of the growing demand for employees as older workers retire, Joliet Junior College President Clyne Namuo told the interns.
“Demographics are changing,” Namuo said. “The shifting demographics will mean that you will have incredible leverage as employees.”
JJC was an employer for the program.
Byron McCullum, a senior at Joliet West who plans a career in the computer field, said he was able to work in information technology at JJC but got more than that from the internship.
“I learned communication skills,” he said. “I made contacts with people I can count on.”
CED President and CEO Doug Pryor said a major goal of the internship program is to introduce students to opportunities in Will County.
“Programs like this help us make that connection between Will County employers and workers of the future,” Pryor said.
Deanna Applegate, a graduate from Joliet West who is going on to study radiologic technology, talked about what she gained from her experience at the Salvation Army of Joliet center where she helped develop presentations on nutrition and worked in the food pantry.
“It helped with social skills – definitely,” Applegate said. “And, I know I’m going to have to attend meetings with higher-ups where I’ll have to be prepared.”
Joliet West Senior Diana Jauregui was a featured speaker at the intern celebration and spoke of her experience in the volunteer and community outreach department at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet hospital.
“I learned so much clinical and non-clinical about what it takes to run a hospital,” Jauregui said. “This internship helped assure my passion for the medical field, and I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity.”
There, she worked in the dispatch division, spending much of her time working on computer files related to daily bus routes. Ayivor said she’s had part-time jobs but the summer intership experience was different.
“I felt I learned a lot,” she said.
A summer internship program was a unique
The first year of a regional intership program is over with many of the interns Interns marking the end of their summer
Several of the interns involved in the Will County Center for Economic Development Internship Program this summer talked about the impact of the experience this week at an event celebrating the program.
Interns, employers and organizers this week celebrated the first year of the Will County Center for Economic Development.