For many young people looking for their passion in life, there’s one milestone that can make all the difference: their first internship.
Last month, more than 200 Omaha high school students had the opportunity to take that first step at Avenue Scholars’ annual Internship Fair. Held on January 29 at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, the Internship Fair brought Scholars in the program together with more than 20 local employers offering paid internship positions.
The Internship Fair is part of an annual slate of programming designed to help Scholars find a career pathway that they’re passionate about and pursue the necessary skills and experience to succeed in it. In the fall, Avenue Scholars’ junior cohort participated in Career Awareness programming, visiting area businesses to learn about job opportunities in six high-demand fields: healthcare, the skilled trades, transportation/automotive, information technology (IT), business, and education.
The Internship Fair, held early in the spring semester, is designed to guide those Scholars to the logical next step: a paid position in a field they’re interested in.
For many of the Scholars attending, the significance of the opportunity was apparent.
“I would say internships are important because they teach you responsibility and structure, and once you get on that schedule and understand ‘This is going to be my life,’ I would say you’re going to have a better understanding for when you’re older,” said Kareem Green, a student at Benson High School, who participated in the fair this year.
Scholars met with representatives from local businesses who shared information about their organizations and the opportunities available there. Many of the representatives said they were impressed by the Scholars’ professionalism and enthusiasm.
This year’s partnering businesses were:
- Aradius Group
- Baxter Auto
- Centris Federal Credit Union
- Children’s Nebraska
- Cobalt Credit Union
- Connected Roots Care Center
- DLR Group
- E&A Consulting Group, Inc.
- Educare of Omaha, Inc.
- Fusion Construction
- The H+H Group
- Hawkins Construction
- Koley Jessen
- Lamp Rynearson
- North End Teleservices
- Nye Health Services
- Pinnacle Bank
- Security National Bank
- Streck
- Truck Center Companies
- Volano Software
- Werner Enterprises
- Westside ECC & Club 66
