Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE
Rafael Guerrero – Contact Reporter
The Courier-News
Amanda Jackson says she hopes to have a career in music one day but that didn’t stop the U46 student from checking out other job possibilities Wednesday at the Explore 2018 career expo.
The eighth-grader said stops at exhibitor booths for professions such as nursing were interesting, and made her consider other options she hadn’t thought of as job possibilities…
For seven Bartlett High School students, summer break this year provided more than the chance to rest and recharge. The students reviewed municipal construction plans, helped foster economic development, and even investigated non-permitted chickens, all as part of a new internship program.
The School District U-46 students completed 40-hour internships this summer with the Village of Bartlett as part of a new program created by ACE — the Alignment Collaborative for Education — an organization of business and community leaders who work together to support the District’s goals and priorities. Key among those goals is to ensure that District schools are teaching the skills students will need to succeed in college and the workforce.
“We’re grateful the Village of Bartlett was so willing to offer this inaugural internship and thrilled that it was such a success,” said Nancy Coleman, ACE Executive Director. “We’re hopeful that students across the District will enjoy more of these opportunities with local business and government partners.”
The Village of Bartlett agreed to be the first ACE member to offer formal internships for U-46 students, and eventually chose seven BHS students to participate. The BHS interns will be recognized during the Bartlett Village Board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 21, which starts at 7 p.m. at Village Hall, 228 S. Main St.
The internships for students Meher Mirza and Sareena Shah centered on engineering. Patricia Marsigan and Britney Yu worked with the village’s Geographic Information System, utilizing software that analyzes data through spatial relationship analysis and mapping technology. Students Azam Khan, Emily Hettinger and Ishan Desai rotated among several village departments.
Joseph Dienberg, who is working as a Bartlett administrative intern while he works toward a Master’s degree, supervised the Bartlett students, and he came away highly impressed by their knowledge and work ethic.
“The students did very well in their internships. We’ve been talking about how bright all of them were,” Dienberg said.
The students worked on several projects, he said. They helped create a welcome packet in both hard copy and digital format that will be used to familiarize new Bartlett residents. The students also helped update the village’s code enforcement software. They used their editing skills to help produce segments for a village video program that spotlights local businesses.
Mirza, who is studying at the BHS Science, Engineering and Technology Academy, spent her internship in the village’s public works department. The prospective class of 2019 graduate said she is considering a career in engineering, so it was a good fit.
“My internship was really informative,” Meher said. “I learned a lot about civil engineering.”
Meher said she got to review the same building plans as the village engineers, and then had the chance to shadow them in the field. The broad scope of duties handled by the village’s public works department was eye-opening, she said; Meher went out with Bartlett employees to document a situation where a resident was reportedly keeping chickens on their property, but had not sought village approval to do so.
Intern Britney Yu said she is considering studying computer science in college, so working with the village’s GIS mapping system was right up her alley. It had some ties to the computer-aided design work she has done in her BHS class work.
She spent some of her time outlining and making data points that will help Bartlett complete a major road repaving project. Britney also received helpful career tips from village employees.
“They helped us with interviewing and resumes tips, which was really great,” Britney said.
Dienberg said the village is producing a package of guidelines and helpful tips that will be available to other ACE members, as ACE expands the internship program to other local businesses and units of government.
ACE is a member of the Alignment USA communities of collaboration and collective impact.
