Paid internships allow 10th-graders to investigate career possibilities

The teens can intern in fields such as law, health care and computers.

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) — With the idea that it’s never too early to prepare for a career, a small coeducational Catholic high school announced plans Thursday to offer 10th-grade students paid pre-professional internships that will help offset tuition costs.

The executive principal of Trinity High School, Thomas Maher, introduced the program by joking that it was aimed at helping students avoid the “six-year college major — undecided.”

The program, which begins with next year’s incoming freshmen, will include job-related ninth-grade courses such as information technology and integrated science. Tenth-graders will spend eight hours a week at Cleveland-area internships in fields such as health care, law and computers.

Is early high school too soon to be thinking about work?

“It all depends on the person. Personally, I’ve had an interest in medicine since eighth grade,” said Joseph Hribar Jr., 17, of Sagamore Hills. The Trinity senior participated in a pilot internship at the Cleveland Clinic.

Money goes toward tuition

Students won’t pocket the internship money — about 80 percent will show up as a credit toward the school’s $8,800 annual tuition and the rest will pay overhead costs. The school estimated the four-year tuition savings at about $11,000, or more than 33 percent.

Job-related courses have become more common in the ninth and 10th grades, but paid internships at that level are more unusual, in part because of the program costs, said Bethany Little of the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which promotes programs to help students stay in school.

Career-oriented programs in early high school work best if students aren’t steered toward certain job areas, she said.

Students at that level need mentors who will coach them on working in a professional atmosphere and should see courses that make connections with their internships, according to Alison Harmon, associate dean of the education school at Youngstown State University.

“Not all young people are prepared nor do they have the social skills or networking or interpersonal skills to work in an environment with paid personnel,” Harmon said.

Students who opt out of the pre-professional internships will get service and research internship opportunities without the tuition help.

The program was crafted over the past three years and included pilot internships, such as the Marymount Hospital work done by Laura Ohlrich, 18, of Cleveland, who graduated from Trinity this year and plans to begin nursing classes at Cuyahoga Community College.

Her $7.75 hourly job involved bathing babies and restocking shelves in the labor and delivery area. She likes the internship program and thinks the tuition help would be welcomed by parents struggling with private-school expenses.

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said before demonstrating her hands-on work by placing a baby girl in the arms of her mother.