MANAGER’S MESSAGE
WELCOME TO PARKPOINT HEALDSBURG
Lyndy Durling, Club Manager
HEALDSBURG HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Jan Blalock, Assistant Club Manager, Fitness & Group Exercise Director
Unless you are a local business person or have raised high schoolers here in Healdsburg, you may not realize our local high school has a fantastic, award-winning internship program for Juniors!
Per their website:
Healdsburg High School offers the only internship program of its kind in Sonoma County. With the generous support of the Healdsburg Education Foundation, the program looks to mentor the workforce of tomorrow by exposing high school students to real world work experience.
All juniors at Healdsburg High School attend a six-day internship at a local business in January and February. Students are required to conduct career research, draft a resume and cover letter, attend an interview, and are prepared on workplace etiquette. Each student has a specific project focus at the internship site and a key deliverable.
Mentors are matched to the students based on the student’s career interest. Businesses are coached in preparing for their intern and asked to give honest, specific feedback on their student’s performance.
Over 80 local businesses participate in the program, along with 150 juniors. “The response from local businesses has been astounding. We have more business mentors than we have students,” says Chris Vanden Heuvel, Superintendent of the Healdsburg School District. “Career readiness is a key initiative at Healdsburg High, and the Academic Internship Program gives our students a competitive advantage.”
Parkpoint Healdsburg has participated in this program for several years. When students are considering different school / career paths, spending time within a work environment of interest is invaluable in determining whether that path may be a good fit!
We will have three interns in 2020. They will be here January 23, 24, 30, 31, and February 6 & 7. Please welcome them—our youth are our future!