By Amanda Nguyen
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Many juniors and seniors are undecided about their possible future careers. This was the case for senior Emma Shipley until she took an internship last semester. She said she interned at the Carmel City Hall in the community relations area and really enjoyed the government setting.

“Last year I didn’t have any idea of what to do in the future so I took a career test and it said I should go into business. Internship is a good way to explore careers and get more experience,” Shipley said.

According to business teacher Stacie Fowler, internship is offered to give students a chance to explore college options. There are a lot of fields that students look into such as public relations, medicine, engineering, advertising and accounting.
She said, “Internship helps students decide if they like that certain job or if they don’t like it. The field of their study may not be what they thought it was.”
After taking an internship, Shipley said she was looking for a career in public relations or advertising. She said she hopes to eventually become a public relations manager.

“Public relations and advertisement deal a lot with writing, art, photography and creativity. Because I’m interested in photography and art, I wanted to find a career to use them in,” Shipley said. “The experience I got from internship was really great. Internship allows me to try new careers and it helps narrow the choices down.”

Fowler said the internship class is during SRT and seventh period so that students can have a three-hour time period to complete job shadows.

She said, “Internship is very beneficial. It’s during SRT and seventh period so it doesn’t require any extracurricular time. Students can still be involved with extracurricular activities and keep a job. It’s a great opportunity to explore and think about what students really want to do in the future.”

Senior Kendal Erickson also interned in the department of community relations. Although it isn’t an example of his interest in telecommunications, it involved different forms of media along with his love of politics.

He said, “I’ve been filming for the football team for three years, but I took internship to explore other ideas. One thing I really enjoyed was working with Nancy Heck, the department head of community relations. I liked the politics of it because it is involved with the media and works directly with the mayor and city.”
Erickson said the telecommunications opportunity came to him when the football team was in need of a person to do the job. “I enjoyed doing film itself and it was fun with the football players. I was talking to different people in the area and it’s a recession proof job. New and media can also tie in with politics. It’s a broad enough field so that I can go in any direction I want,” Erickson said.

Although Shipley isn’t taking any classes related to public relations or advertisement, she said, the internship class opens up a lot of opportunities in college and gets contacts for future internships.

“Internship allows me to get an understanding of what I want do to in college,” Shipley said.

Erickson said he agrees with Shipley and said, “Internship gives the idea of the career. It allows you to find out if you actually want do to a certain job or not because you get a firsthand experience with it.”

Shipley said she enjoys the fact that she gets out of school and a parking pass, but she also said, “Internship is a really good experience.”