THE ECHO

By Isabelle Corn // Reporter
Internships are often thought of as an unpaid job that consists of fetching
coffee, but for Avon students, they are an opportunity to learn a lot about
working and a lot about themselves.
Doing an internship can help a student decide what career they want to
pursue and give them work experience in the job that they are interested in.
Adam Clark, a DECA adviser and a mentor to interns at Avon High School,
says that an internship can prepare a student for working after high school.
“We do training throughout the year on soft skills, work ready skills, to
make sure students are ready for what happens after Avon High School,”
Clark said.
Internships can also show a student what the career they’re interested in is
really like. Clark says that students might change their mind about a career
once they experience it through an internship.
“Students don’t really know what a job is like until they’re there for a
sustained amount of time,” Clark said. “Many times, students think that they
might want to do a specific career, but once they’re there for a semester,
they realize it’s not for them.”
Nora Corn, a senior at Avon High School, says that she realized physical
therapy isn’t the career she wants to pursue. She is an intern at Fast Track
Physical Therapy, where she observes the physical therapist, asks the
patients about their injuries, and helps the physical therapy assistants as
needed.
“I picked physical therapy because I thought that’s what I would like to do
the most out of anything, and I thought that’s what I wanted to do in
college,” Corn said, “but I’m glad that I did it because I found out that’s not
what I want to do. I won’t have to spend thousands of dollars to change my
major in college.”
Apart from helping students decide their career, internships can also help
students interact with more people and change how they perceive other
people. Corn says that her internship has allowed her to talk to more
people, and it has taught her a valuable lesson.
“It’s helped me to get to know a lot of different people and the things
they’ve been through,” Corn said, “and how you can look at someone and
not realize what they’ve experienced and all the things they’re going
through just from the outside.”
Rian Hobbs, a senior intern at the Animal Hospital of Avon, says that she
learned more about veterinary clinics through her internship. She
appreciates the work that vets do more now that she is able to see how hard
they work.
“I gained more respect for them because you don’t really see all the
background stuff. A lot of vet clinics are understaffed,” Hobbs said. “I got a
lot more respect for them because they do a lot more than you think they
would.”
Although some students change their mind about a career after their
internship, others learn how much they like the career. Hobbs says that it
confirmed her dream to become a vet.
“I feel like it really solidified what I want to do with my future, and with
other people, it could be a helpful thing to see if they want to do that or if
they don’t want to do it,” Hobbs said.