For the first time this year, Olympia High School offered an internship program, allowing students to get a head start into their chosen career.

The internship program was aimed at Junior and Seniors who are looking to jump start their career area. In order to be admitted into the program, students had to find a place to intern and also be admitted into the actual program here at Olympia.

According to Mrs. Connie Schroeder, program organizer, nine students participated this year, four first semester and five second. Mrs. Schroeder hopes to continue leading the program in the future.

One student that participated the  intern program was senior Grace Litwiller. Grace worked at Eli’s Coffee where she focused on the business aspects of the company. Grace said, “I enjoyed the flexible hours that the program gave me … my college advisor also liked that I had an internship already on my college application.”

Another student that participated in the intern program this year was Kate Dreyer who interned at HMC in nursing. Kate also enjoyed the flexible hours of the intern program.

Kate advises new students planning on participating in the intern program to show up on time and to make friends wherever you are interning. She also encourages students to make sure they are signed up on time for the program itself.

All the students who participated in the program were pleased with the experience and encouraged students to sign up. Students said it was easy to log hours and that Mrs. Schroeder was easy to work with.

Mrs. Schroeder was also very pleased to hear back from the companies where the students interned and many of them want interns for next year.  Overall the program did an outstanding job with both representing the school and having students complete successful internships that possibility could lead to future jobs.