Autumn Schmidlin

Mary Hanks is the new school internship coordinator. Use the contact information below to see any possible internship opportunities.

Internships are positions of work that can allow people to gain knowledge or experience, sometimes without pay, to work toward either more training or to earn a certification. These internships can also allow students to earn half of a highschool credit or a dual college credit, like an AP class. 

Mary Hanks is the internship coordinator at the school and has been working in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District for 23 years, and at the high school specifically for 10 years. The position, internship coordinator, is a new job this year at the school.

“The district wanted to find a way to honor career and technical education (CTE), and more career preparedness activities for students,” Hanks said. “So they said, ‘Well, before COVID-19 we had tried to start internships and then COVID-19 pretty much shut everything down and we really need to get that going again.’ So they created two positions to work on bringing career partners into students in the classroom, like those career speakers and things like that, and then opportunities for students. Students get experience in real-world tasks.”

Although the school has a required Life class that aims to teach some career preparedness, there was an option for teachers to teach the resume lesson. That’s where the position, internship coordinator, can come into play. Students could take the resume they made in Life class, or the one they developed on their own, and apply that to internships with help from Hanks. 

“The benefit would be if you’re studying a certain subject in school that you kind of like and you’re really not committed to it in a major, or you want to know about it because you want to know a certain area about it, then you could try a short term six-week experience with a professional working on a project and earn credit for it,” Hanks said.

The high school has an internship site in the making for future years, but for now, Hanks recommends looking at other schools sites either in the district, like Wilsonville, or neighboring districts.

“There are a lot of existing internships already out in the community that a lot of us had no idea were out there,” Hanks said. “So I started doing a lot of shopping, and there are a lot of pre-existing internships that students can apply for, and I find that looking on other schools’ websites is really helpful. Like Portland Public has a really robust website about it.”

There are different kinds of internships that apply to various fields of work that include police, environmental, and recreation internships. Participation in these internships can be put on work or educational resumes to benefit the chance of employment or acceptance. 

“Having that internship is going to look really good to both employers and colleges on your college resume. As well like, ‘Hey, I took the time to show extra interest and practice this skill,’” Hanks said.

The high school plans on releasing a document that has various kinds of internships, like the (ACE) Mentorship Program and the Invention Bootcamp at Portland State University, that students of West Linn can privately look into or take part in through the school. 

Furthermore, there are private internships students can choose from. Hanks is creating internships that are school sponsored so students can participate through the high school. That was the original goal before the COVID-19 pandemic shut schools down. 

“That’s one of my goals, we’re developing this [website so] you can click on these links, they’re not school associated at all. It would be something you and your family doing outside the school system. But if you want a school sponsored activity, then you would contact me and we would see what we could work it out,” Hanks said.

For further questions about seeking an internship or more, see these resources created by Hanks or contact Hanks at [email protected].