Senior Ky’Anna Arthurton, a counseling intern, sits in the counseling office during fifth period. Arthurton believes that this internship will be beneficial to her in future occupations. “I wanna be a teacher,” Arthurton said. “I think it prepares me to be able to talk to (students) later when I’m working at a different school and to be patient with them and things like that.” Photo by Valeria Garcia-Pozo.
By VALERIA GARCIA-POZO – News Editor
Eleventh and twelfth graders have the opportunity to act as interns in the counseling office through the application-only work-based learning for internship course.
During first, fourth, fifth and sixth periods, students who are enrolled in the work-based learning for internship course sit behind the desk of the counseling office and assist in the responsibilities of counseling secretary La Toya Jewell and others who work in the department.
“Basically, I am the secretary’s secretary,” senior and counseling intern Ky’Anna Arthurton said. “When she’s not available to help a student get to a counselor, I’ll do that. I can call students out for any visitors that come. I make copies. Sometimes I send transcripts, so I do a lot of the things that she does when she’s not available to do that.”
According to Jewell, the presence of interns in the counseling office is highly beneficial.
“We have a lot going on. We have to call students down constantly, along with other things going on, the counselors may need help, so it is very imperative that we have interns. We wish we could have interns on every class period,” Jewell said. “We know that we possibly can’t have that, but it would be an asset to us.”
The work-based learning for internship course is taught by Career, Technical, and Agriculture (CTAE) department teacher Paulette Johnson and counts for a grade, but is application-only.
“If you wanna be an intern, I take your name, give you a packet, you fill it out and turn it back in, and go from there. You have to get your schedule changed accordingly for that class,” Jewell said. “You do have work that you have to do in this class along with being an intern up front and (being) the face of the counseling office.”
Arthurton believes that the application process was thorough, and that her role in the counseling office is a good use of her time.
“I had to fill out a very thick application,” Arthurton said. “You have to give them like a resume and all this stuff and they choose who would be the best fit, and they look at all your credits, too. I only need two more credits to graduate so it was just kind of a filler instead of taking a random class.”
