NYHS Internship Program Shines for Professional Audience

On Thursday January 25th, New York Harbor School held its first annual Senior Internship Portfolio Presentations. These presentations were an opportunity for successful senior interns to share their knowledge and insights with a professional audience, including mentors and representatives from eight internship organizations, NYHS staff, and fellow students. According to most everyone, the presentations were generally outstanding and the question and answer period that followed each was informative and thought provoking.

Most interns chose to guide their 5-7 minute speech with a PowerPoint slide show, highlighting the main points of the experience, including photos and visual documentation of the organization’s work. Some notably well developed PowerPoint Presentations were given by Ricardo Rodriguez, Yoscar Ogando, and Jenny Rodriguez. Other students, such as Elias Alvarez, chose to provide a hands-on demonstration, which in his case included modeling a hand sewn, extremely fashionable shirt that he had made recently.

After each intern’s presentation, the floor was opened to questions from adults and fellow students. Interns fielded complex questions thoughtfully and exhibited a sense of professionalism rarely seen amongst high school students. The dialogue was inspiring. For example, Sandro Carrasco, an intern at Robert AM Stern Architects, prompted the audience to think critically about the evolving field of green architecture and environmental design. Alex fielded questions confidently and enthusiastically. According to NYHS marine tech teacher and mentor Brendan Malone, “I’ve never been more proud of our students… sounding so professional and exhibiting such amazing growth in these four short years.”

The Internship Program has provided Harbor School students with an opportunity to experience the world of work, twice a week leaving school independently to work in a professional setting. The School has recruited a wide range of internship sites, including hospitals, architecture firms, law firms, educational nonprofits, credit unions, shipyards, and numerous other maritime and non-maritime organizations. The Program is open to academically successful seniors through a competitive application process. Please encourage students in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade to begin discussing their interests for next year’s internships – sooner the better!