More Central Ohio high-schoolers are hitting the workplace as interns

Michael Lewis hasn’t even started college, but the recent graduate of Columbus Downtown High School already has two internships on his resume.

Lewis, 18, of the South Side, worked last summer for Nationwide in its supply management services divi- sion, and since November he has been interning at Education First Credit Union.

Internships have long been associated with college students, but Lewis’ experience illustrates a growing shift in high schools across central Ohio.

Columbus City Schools i ncludes completing an internship as part of some paths to graduation. The Canal Winchester and Reyn- oldsburg school districts have staff members whose responsibilities include a heavy focus on finding stu- dents internships. And Bexley City Schools created a similar position that starts Aug. 1.

Decades ago, internships were rarely an option for high school students, said Kathy McFarland, deputy chief executive for the Ohio School Boards Association. “And then we had these oneday career days where kids could shadow, but what we’ve evolved into is how important it is for students to be able to have this ongoing experience.”

The evolution has been driven by a number of fac- tors, including the way in which technology is chang- ing the nature of work, and the rising cost of college, educators say.

Because of the price of higher education - and the burdensome student-loan debt that can follow - it is helpful for students to get a taste of a particular profes- sion before they make it their college major, educators said. The average annual tuition at Ohio’s four-year public universities was $10,026 in 2017-18, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Ohio’s average college graduate in the class of 2017 had $30,629 in student-loan debt, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

For some students, an internship might solidify their interest in a particu- lar college major or career path. That was the experience of Lewis, who will major in business at Wright State University in the fall.

For others, it might show that the career they wanted to pursue isn’t what they expected, letting them reconsider their major or whether they should enter the workforce upon grad- uation instead of going to college.

Kelvin Gilliam, 17, a rising senior at Centennial High School on the Northwest Side, is interning this summer at Limbach, a Near East Side company that builds and installs mechanical and electrical systems for build- ings. Gilliam, who attends the welding program at Fort Hayes Career Center, said he is helping to make and install ventilation systems.

Gilliam said that when he entered high school, he had no idea that he would be able to get an internship and work toward establishing a possible career.

“I was actually really excited,” said Gilliam, whose internship will continue through his senior year. “I wanted to do something with my hands, so it was better for me.”

In January 2018, Kristin Ankrom started a newly created job as Canal Winchester High School’s internship coordinator. Since then, she has helped to place 30 students in internships, many of them in the health-care sector.

To find internships for students, Ankrom has to build relationships across the Canal Winchester business community, she said. She acknowledged that some people who hear the word “internship” still “think college students instantly.”

But Ankrom said she views her job - and internships for high school students more broadly - as part of a “paradigm shift of what high school students are capa- ble of.”

Much of the grow i ng interest in internships has come from the students. The growth in popularity of the Young Professionals’ Academy in the Dublin school district illustrates that point, officials there say.

The academy - a semester-long career-preparation program - has been around for roughly two decades, but its enrollment skyrocketed last year, said Kristy Venne, director of Dublin’s Emerald Campus, a school focused on career exploration.

In the 2017-18 school year, the program had about 25 students, she said. Last year, about 200 enrolled.

“We’ve had to add instructors because of the student interest,” Venne said.

C laire Distel, 17, was enrolled in the spring and spent six weeks with a physical therapist at Friendship Village of Dublin, a senior living community, and six weeks at Nanofiber Solutions, a biotech company in Hilliard.

This month, Distel, a rising senior at Dublin Scioto High School, is starting an internship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Institute for Genomic Medicine.

“I was very interested in the medical field, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do something with patients or behindthe-scenes work in a laboratory,” she said.

Distel has enjoyed both opportunities.

“I feel like the best way for me to learn is to just do it,” she said.