 |
| EDUCATION INTERNSHIP--One of the recent Intersession internships created by St. Augustine High School was placing one of its students to be a teachers aide at St. Patrick school in San Diego. St. Pat's school is currently celebrating its 70th Anniversary. Photo courtesy Saints Scene, parent/community monthly newspaper |
SUNDAY REVIEW
/ INNOVATION IN EDUCATION—Guest Blog—by Denis Grasska, Reporter, Southern
Cross newspaper, San Diego. Published
with permission.
Sandwiched
between the first and second semesters, a month-long term of study called
intersession is enriching the educational experience at St. Augustine High
School.
More than 700 students – the entire student body – participate in
intersession by choosing one from among a list of elective courses, including
sailing, cooking, marine biology, architecture and criminal justice, all of
which are offered exclusively during intersession.
Seniors have the option of either enrolling in a class or taking
advantage of the many internship opportunities also available. Working closely
with its community partners, the school has been able to offer internships in
the fields of finance, medicine, law and education, among others.
Principal James Horne describes intersession as “a fantastic
enrichment of the college-prep program we’ve been known to offer.” He explained
that a solid academic program, one that provides everything necessary to
prepare students for college, still “leaves out a grand portion of what’s
wonderful about learning.” And intersession is intended to fill that gap.
The types of courses and internships offered during intersession
are generally the result of students’ recommendations, he said, and give
students the opportunity to learn about the things that interest them.
During this year’s intersession, which began Jan. 6 and concluded
Jan. 31, some 26 electives and 160 internships were available. Freshmen were
required to complete a course offered on campus; sophomores and juniors were
able to avail themselves of courses held at off-campus locations, such as the
Mission Bay Aquatic Center and the Sorrento Valley Racquetball & Fitness
Center; and the majority of seniors opted for an internship.
For the North Park school’s on-campus classes, the school day ran
from 7:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
On Jan. 30, the evening before the close of intersession, the
school held its annual Intersession Expo. Students, parents, community partners
and internship providers all attended the event, which showcases the diverse
opportunities offered during intersession.
“I like the ability to choose what you want to study and focus on
that subject for an entire month,” said Brendan McNamara, a senior, who spent
this year’s intersession as an intern at the San Diego Zoo.
McNamara, who plans to study biology in college, assisted zoologists
in observing animals and collecting and interpreting data. He was also able to
“go behind the scenes” at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to learn about its
cheetah breeding program.
Over the span of four intersession periods, McNamara said he has
learned “a wide variety of skills in a range of topics,” including speech,
engineering and architecture.
“The intersession program gives Saints a value that no other school
has,” said Pablo Ortega Flores, also a senior, who just completed a month-long
internship with TargetSolutions, an organization that provides online training
and records management.
During his first two years at Saints, Flores took speech and film
production classes during intersession. In his junior year, he participated in
a service trip to Italy, where he assisted in the refurbishing of an
Augustinian monastery and visited several Italian cities.
“I have been able to visit and learn about new cultures, and I have
learned about working in a corporation – something that might not have happened
until after college,” Flores said. “The intersession experience enables us to
acquire a unique and important experience.”
Plans for the Saints intersession program arose during a time when
the school was looking for a way to continue offering physical education
classes even as an increasing number of advanced-placement courses and other
academic offerings jockeyed for inclusion in the regular semester schedule.
Through the creation of a new term of study, Horne said, the school
was not only able to preserve the physical education program but also to
provide alternatives to “the typical P.E. class” as well as “a lot of different
things … [that] a traditional curriculum doesn’t address.”
Citing an engineering class and another course titled “Careers in
Sports” as examples, he said, “These are things that aren’t usually offered at
a high school, but we found that our kids have great interest in learning about
those topics.”
To accommodate the new term of study, the beginning of the academic
year was pushed back to the third week of August so that the first semester
could be concluded before Christmas break. The academic year ends during the
first week of June.
While the rest of the school’s curriculum readies Saints students
for the university level, Horne said, intersession is even more
forward-looking. “This intersession,” he said, “is designed to help prepare
[students] for life choices beyond college – learning things about the work
environment, about teamwork, about collaboration with others, and then of course,
some experience with specific industries.”
“I see it really kind of being a springboard for our kids into
what’s next in their lives,” he said. “I think we’re seeing it creating
connections between our students and future employers.”
Reprinted with
permission of The Southern Cross newspaper.
Article by Saints alum and Southern Cross staff member Denis Grasska was
first published on Feb. 18, 2014.
Businesses and organizations in
the San Diego area wishing to land a Saints intern for 2015 should contact St.
Augustine High Principal James Horne: jhorne@sahs.org
No comments:
Post a Comment