Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker with RISD Superintendent Jeannie Stone and RISD students
What makes ambitious Lake Highlands High School students even happier than a summer internship with a successful local company?
A paid internship.
The City of Richardson launched a major new initiative Wednesday, partnering with the Richardson Chamber of Commerce and RISD to help high school students explore careers over the summer break. Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker, Richardson Chamber of Commerce President Bill Sproull and RISD Superintendent Dr. Jeannie Stone were on hand to kick off the Richardson Mayors Intern Program at City Hall, an aggressive outreach to enable 50 rising high school seniors to receive 8 weeks of paid employment at an area company or nonprofit.
“This is an exciting opportunity for students to engage with Richardson-area employers,” said Voelker. “In addition to giving them work experience and helping educate them about certain types of jobs, the program will help open their eyes to the fact that there are amazing businesses right in their own backyard. Their future career path doesn’t have to lead them far away.”
The first order of business will be to recruit companies in Dallas, Richardson and Garland to hire the students. The program is not affiliated with RISD’s existing Professional Internship Program (PIP), but some of those businesses are expected to opt in.
Interested students (this year’s juniors) will complete an online application to be selected for a full-day Saturday class, which includes training for resume writing, interviewing and other skills. The day will end with a job fair, with employers hiring students who match up with their environment.
The program dovetails with RISD’s increased focus on career and technical education, and is modeled after successful internship programs in Dallas and Plano. More than 2,100 DISD students at 52 schools have worked as interns since 2008.
“Students drive everything we do in RISD,” Stone said. “It is our responsibility to provide them every opportunity we can to help them experience success in life. The city and chamber embrace that with us and we are all now positioned to give our students a head start on experiencing real life.”
Businesses may sign up to sponsor an intern here, and students may fill out the online application here. For more information, contact Masud Shamsid-Deen at masud.shamsid-deen@risd.org.
