Intern Coaching and Support to Underserved High School Students
Supporting Internships for Underserved High School Students in Northern Virginia Since 2020
Pathways programs facilitate intergenerational connection and experiences that encourage young people to imagine their future. Part of that process involves a “design thinking” approach to trying new things. Internships have always been a great source of that, but they have tended historically to favor students with means to take unpaid internships.
The Pathways Internship Program seeks to level the playing field by creating opportunities for underserved students to experience internships. We offer them stipends and community “career coaches” to mentor them throughout.
Internships usually last 2–5 weeks, after school for a few days a week or on a weekend or during a vacation, perhaps for a few hours a day. We sometimes refer to this kind of work experience as “shadowing heavy” or “internship light.”
Interested in doing more than supporting internships? You’re invited to support a new Career Pathways Program at Herndon High School!
How Harraseeket and Its Partners Work Together
Harraseeket:
pays stipends to the students so they can afford to take unpaid internships
finds internship employers and puts their names in a directory for students to review
recruits mentors (we call them “career coaches”) from communities to help the students find, apply for, get ready for, and excel at their internships
Our partners identify students who would benefit from internships and work with them and the employers to make the internship a success.
Why an Internship Program?
Internships offer students, particularly underserved students, an opportunity to imagine their future — and act on what they imagine. We are seeking to level the playing field to allow a broader and more diverse group of students to access experiences they might not otherwise think about.
“Years of employer surveys, research studies, and anecdotal stories from students paint a positive picture of internships as an important tool in helping students get started in a career. Research has labeled internships as a “high-impact practice” that has a positive effect on learning, retention, and graduation rates.”
— NACE Center for Career Development and Talent Acquisition called “The Impact of Scholarships on Unpaid Internships” (2019)
Fairfax County Public Schools Chooses Harraseeket to offer Pathways Internship Program
Gathering to sign the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)-Harraseeket agreement to bring the Pathways Internship Program to Fairfax County: Wally Hamsher, Harraseeket Treasurer; Matt Hecht, FCPS Work-Based Learning; Martha Macdonald, FCPS MentorWorks; Jay Grant, Director, Business and Community Partnerships; and Steve Parker, Harraseeket President and Co-Founder
Looking for Internship Employers!
We’re looking for employers of all types — big and small, retail businesses, businesses that are in trades, and non-profits. We’re particularly interested in Herndon, Reston and Arlington employers, although any employer talking the Dulles corridor can be a great internship host.
Looking for Communities Interested in Volunteering as Career Coaches!
We’re looking for adult members (including young adults) of Northern Virginia faith and secular communities (businesses and nonprofits) to help students find, apply for, prepare for and succeed in internships.
Fairfax County Public schools just selected Harraseeket to offer its internship program to high school students in Fairfax County, with an initial focus on Herndon High School.
Harraseeket has worked with Communities in Schools of Northern Virginia (CIS NOVA) for two years to offer its internship program at Wakefield High school and Alexandria City High School.
We are supporting internship programs with our partners in multiple high schools in Fairfax County and Arlington County, Virginia.
Our Internship Program Partners
“The mission of the Fairfax County Public Schools MentorWorks program is to connect every student to a caring, responsible adult. The FCPS Workforce program, also called Work-Based Learning, is a coordinated education strategy providing students a continuum of career related experiences that extend classroom learning to support the development of career goals. Harraseeket’s Pathways Internship Fund, which funds internships and offers mentoring for the interns, is a great fit with the MentorWorks and Workforce programs. These kinds of internships, and related mentoring, is just what many of our students need, and will help eliminate gaps in opportunity, access and achievement.”
“The Harraseeket Foundation is funding internship stipends for CIS NOVA students. These are students who could not otherwise take unpaid internships. The feedback from the interns has been consistently extremely positive, with our students saying they have learned from the experience, gained confidence, and discovered opportunities for themselves that they didn’t know about before the internship. We would not have this program without Harraseeket, and plans are underway for our third cohort of interns this summer! The Pathways Internship Fund makes a difference in the lives of our students, and directly supports our mission of helping our students succeed.”
Outcomes We Aim For
Experience that powerfully shapes a student’s thinking about his or her future.
Confidence from an internship to look at the future with a wider range of opportunities.
Connections offered by working closely with employers and other interns.
Relationships with mentors and employers that are based on finding meaning and purpose.
What the Interns Say
All of the students who have completed a Pathways internship gave their experience a 5 rating, the top rating. Here are a few of the quotes from their surveys:
“I would say thank you so much for the amazing opportunity they gave me. I enjoyed every second of every day I was there. I really did learn a lot of new things I didn’t know before. The skills I have learned as well as the information will most definitely help me out later down the road in my future.”
“I gained a lot of confidence about my communication skills”
“I met new people, learned to greet others, and learned about different cultures. An amazing experience.”
“It was a great experience and it was exciting.”
What Students are Looking for in an Internship
We asked a few students to tell us on video what they hoped to experience. Click on the video link below to see what they say:
What the Experts Say
“Many underrepresented students must work throughout high school and don’t have the luxury to accept unpaid internships. High school is a critical period for students to start exploring what they enjoy, identifying their career goals and mapping out a plan for achieving them.”
— Hechinger Report
“Financial barriers … often prevent low-income students from accessing high-quality internships, many of which are unpaid. These students may need a summer income in order to pay for college, leaving the career-rich opportunities that unpaid internships provide off the table.”
— American Association of Colleges & Universities
“Compensating interns frees them up to fully engage in a valuable workplace learning experience while being able to meet their basic needs. Internship programs empower at risk students to visualize college and career pathways they previously thought were unattainable.”
— Hechinger Report
How YOU Can Get Involved
Apply to be an Intern
We’re interested in hearing from high school students in Northern Virginia who cannot take unpaid internships due to financial or other limitations.
Coach a Pathways Fund Intern
We’re looking for adult members (including young adults) of Northern Virginia faith and secular communities (businesses and nonprofits) to help students find, apply for, prepare for and succed in internships.
Offer Internship Opportunities
We’re looking for employers of all types — big and small, retail businesses, businesses that are in trades, and non-profits. We’re particularly interested in Herndon, Reston and Arlington employers
Partner With Us
If you’re a Northern Virginia worship community or a secular community with an interest in supporting young people in internships and other mentoring activities, we’d like to chat with you.
Some of Our Key Pathways Internship Fund Sponsors
Immanuel Presbyterian Church of McLean, VA uses an Endowment Fund to further the mission of the church by funding new ideas. The Pathways Internship Fund was launched with a 2020 grant.
Parker Tide, a small business that offers careers to a wide range of people interested in working at government agencies, has been a regular donor since we launched our first Pathways program in 2017.
Chain Bridge Bank, N.A., a community bank in McLean, VA, expanded the reach of the Pathways Internship Fund with a generous contribution in early 2021.
Make a Donation
Donations allow us to fund internship stipends for high school students and support the work needed to create the supporting infrastructure for the program.