Lighthouse Internship fair attracts potential participants
On April 4th, the high school lobby buzzed with excitement as students filled the room for the Internship Fair after school. Mr. Christopher Kong, Miss. Ruby Xiao, and his group of interns from the Lighthouse Interns set up booths for students to inform them more about a summer internship program that officially began in 2017.
Each member of the internship team prepared a brief presentation on their respective internship and answered questions from fellow students (who munched on the available snacks). Nicholas Yu (12C), an intern at Anpac Bio–a company that makes and packs boxes for transporting human blood–was quite satisfied with the results of the fair. “It’s pretty good in terms of how it raised awareness of this project as well as giving other people a chance to understand what really went on in different types of internships,” Nicholas said. The students were extremely attentive and asked a number of questions regarding the Lighthouse program as well as each individual internship. Through this fair, the Lighthouse Internship Program was able to recruit 32 new members.
The Lighthouse Program was organized and put together by Ms. Lulu Wang, Ms. Amy Chen, and Ms. Judy Xiong to provide opportunities for students that would be otherwise too hard to obtain by themselves. The program officially went into effect in the summer of 2017 with twenty student interns. The dozens of companies and positions available ranged from a doctor’s assistant at one of the largest hospitals in Shanghai to a data & information project analyst at the world’s largest study abroad company (IDP Education). Each student was evaluated thoroughly by the company they had applied for and given jobs based on their abilities. Through this program, the students have learned and established new skills and relationships in a completely different environment. Each company was thoroughly impressed by the work of the students, many exclaiming that they had “exceeded their expectations”.
Internships are one of the limited ways we as students can gain work experience before officially entering the working world. It provides opportunities and life lessons that cannot be found either at school or at home. Upon recognizing the difficulty of obtaining an internship in China, the three teachers had spent days and days of hard work to put together this program in order to provide the students the opportunities they deserve. With each year, the program becomes more and more sophisticated and well-organized. Why not try out your skills at an internship this year? Maybe you can will discover something great and exciting!
Featured Image – Sean Tang introduces his internship excitedly to attentive listener Courtesy of Ms. Judy Xiong