Students throughout Frisco ISD often look for practical experience for their future career with the district’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center offering a multitude of internship experiences.
“I think this internship program is such an incredible and fortunate thing we get to be a part of,” senior Malia Willingham said. “Students are getting real practice before going off to start a career and it is already extremely helpful. I could not be more thankful that I’m in a district that offers such a cool program like this.”
Since CTE internships are a part of students’ school schedule, they don’t have to spend additional time outside of school pursuing their passions.
“This program allows you to use some of your school schedule for your classes so it doesn’t interfere with your extracurriculars or anything which makes it a great opportunity,” junior Shreshta Kotha said. “You also don’t have to go through the tedious process of applying to various internship opportunities without the guarantee of getting in.”
The purpose of CTE internships is to give students a more accessible way to determine which field of study they want to pursue.
“Some benefits of the CTE internship program include experiencing what your future might be like because I’ve heard a lot of people decide not to pursue the field they did an internship for because they just realized it wasn’t for them,” Kotha said.
Willingham believes that she will learn more valuable information through hands-on activities during CTE internships than sitting in class.
“You don’t just get to learn about a career you’re interested in, you actually get to go out in the real world and physically learn,” Willingham said. “I could sit in a classroom all day and be taught how to be an effective teacher, but it’s so different once you walk into an actual classroom. That’s what this internship prepares you for, and it already has taught me so many things from just being in the actual environment.”
Hours used in this internship can be used to fulfill necessary experience hours, placing students ahead of their peers.
“For many higher education institutions, you need a certain amount of hours of hands-on experience,” Willingham said. “Already having that experience under my belt would jumpstart my career and already put me so far down the path. Not to mention, you can only grow from learning these real-life helpful skills young, so I can’t wait to see how far I can go.”
CTE internships have the potential to boost students’ college acceptance rate as many colleges prefer students with experience beforehand.
“The opportunity I have to gain real world experience before even graduating high school gives me a great advantage when I get to study this field in college,” senior Vibha Immedisetty said. “Not only will I be more accepted to study my field, I’ll have real world experience to apply to my studies.”
CTE internships aim to give students knowledge and the practical experience to be successful in future careers.
“This is a very unique experience to be gained through actually getting hands-on experience with professionals near you,” Immedisetty said. “It’s really educational to see the processes these professionals go through and it’s invaluable information that really isn’t taught outside of internships like these. It’s a very strong way for students to have the closest possible version to an undergraduate or graduate internship or job at a younger age.”
