For this reason, each student participates in a 3-credit internship program called Capstone. Although we are always talking and thinking about the future, students begin preparing for their internship as they approach their final year of high school. The program has 4 distinct phases.
Students will begin exploring how their characteristics, skills, and interests might fit with different careers, and begin brainstorming ideas for their Capstone internship.
The overall purpose of the Capstone Site phase is to secure an internship location and internship mentor. Activities may include generating letters of interest, exchanging email correspondence, developing scripts, making phone calls, organizing informal visits with professionals in the career field, and traveling on-site to visit targeted facilities.
The internship phase is designed to immerse the student in the real world of adult work to provide a context for learning outside of school. Students will observe and actively participate in the operations of the internship site, receiving direct guidance from an on-site supervisor or their internship mentor and ongoing support from school. Most internships target 300 hours of on-site experience.
In the Defense phase, students assemble a panel of peers and adults, lead a presentation that explains and analyzes the internship, and participate in a discussion session in which the student responds to panel comments and inquiries. This is the point of Capstone that acts as the culminating experience of the previous year and the springboard for the first concrete transitional step to adulthood.
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