Most of the skills that I use at work were not taught in a classroom. The bulk of learning occurs through real life experience, on the job training or trial and error. As educators, it is imperative to create authentic opportunities for our kids. One way we do this is through an internship experience.

One hundred and thirty teenagers leave our building every Wednesday and head to universities, law offices, hotels, science labs, restaurants, after school programs, architecture firms, day cares and even City Hall. They have the chance to develop real life work skills in real life work environments. They sit in on planning meetings, write memos, participate in interviews, assist with customers, devise schedules, write thousands of e-mails and make even more copies. Through these internships, doors will be opened. They will make connections for potential summer jobs, pad their work resumes and make themselves stand out among their peers in college applications.

All this will happen unless, that is, they can't get there. Our school district is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. We are struggling to find the money in our budget to transport our kids to internships set up all throughout the city. The distance from our school to downtown, where many of these apprenticeships are located is almost seven miles. With transfers and some students needing up to 6 tokens to make it round trip, our token budget starts to add up. Frankly, we don't have enough money in our budget to pay for all of our students to get to internships.

Your support is essential. Without it, our kids will miss out on genuine learning and job opportunities. Your donation could literally allow our sophomores to go places they would otherwise never go. The internships are set up. The kids are ready to work. All they need is a ride.

Thank you, 

Ms. Sorensen (Internship Coordinator)

Back Up Plan