At the 12 Community Schools throughout Philadelphia, students can learn and access services throughout the year. This summer, several high school students took what they’ve learned in school to field-based internships. Here is a look at what they were up to this summer:

1. Two students completed Penn Architecture program internships

This summer, two students from George Washington High School participated in a program in the University of Pennsylvania’s architecture department. The students, Rukhshona Subhonova and Steve Matthew, spent countless hours designing and eventually creating scale models of architectural projects with the help of professors and industry experts.

Rukhshona was raised in Uzbekistan, which influenced her participation in the program. In her culture, building homes is traditionally a role for men. She hopes to break that mold.

This program has shown Rukhshona “a real-life experience of what a college can be.” In the future, Rukhshona wants to pursue an architecture career with a very specific mission in mind. “I want to help design homeless shelters around here…I want to help out.”

Steve shared how attending a Community School helped prepare him for the program. “There are so many different people in a Community School. I’ve learned to communicate with all of them,” said Steve.

Steve also sees a future for himself in architecture. This program, which he found through his Community School, made that clear for him. “I like drawing, I like art. When they introduced me to architecture it really hit me like this is what I want. I’ve been trying to decide on something for my future and this seems like a good thing for me.”

2. Six students completed their second year as Philadelphia Streets Department interns

Six students from various Community Schools completed their second year of a two-summer paid internship with the Philadelphia Streets Department. They served as mentee survey technicians, learning valuable skills and preparing for an engineering exam which will help them secure full-time work with the City’s Streets Department.

James Burtin from Murrell Dobbins CTE High School said he is now on a long-term career track thanks to this internship.“I like doing this. I want to continue doing this for a lifetime.”

James says that career pathways like this internship are extremely valuable to high school students in the city. “This is a great opportunity to change kids’ lives,” he said.

Recent Kensington Health Sciences Academy graduates Nathan Garcia and Zerrick Nathaniel were also dedicated to the work and enjoyed growing with each new task they were given.

Zerrick said coming from a Community School helped prepare him for this internship. “Kensington Health Sciences really opened up a lot of opportunities for me, this being one of them.”

Zerrick also noted how this opportunity was brought forth by the Community School and how important an opportunity to go from school to work, is for students. “Being at a Community School helped because you wouldn’t usually find a lot of opportunities out here like this. There aren’t a lot of opportunities out in the streets and in the community like this,” he said.

As for Nathan, he hopes to see more employers offer internships like this. “I feel like this could be an opportunity for everybody,” he said.

3. Five students were interns in the Penn Graduate School of Education Fellowship program

Five Kensington Health Sciences Academy students provided their unique insight into Philadelphia schools to prospective teachers enrolled in Penn Graduate School of Education classes. As teaching fellows, the students offered first-hand accounts about what future teachers should know about Philadelphia and students today.

In addition to bringing valuable student insight to the teacher preparation process, this program gave students exposure to college life and an opportunity to be heard. The internships also provided a unique view of what it takes to become a teacher. As KHSA senior Frances Felix described it, “We’re not seeing them as teachers, but as students, in this new perspective.”

Savio Marku, a rising KHSA senior, was motivated to apply “because I want to tell the new teachers my story. I went to KHSA in 2016-2017. I was the only Albanian student…nobody knew my language but in KHSA I found the love of a new immigrant, a new student, and that’s the most important thing.”

Community Schools shape students, added Jennifer Carrasquillo. At KHSA, teachers are “always trying something different and reaching out to the students. It is what really shapes the students and helps them in their future.”

The connections students made at these internships demonstrates how Community Schools are building school-to-career pipelines  for young adults. With the foundation and partnerships that Philadelphia’s Community Schools create, these students have turned summer into a learning experience that will last them a lifetime.

Read more about this internship in The Philadelphia Public School Notebook.