Internships for Homeschool High School, Interview with Sherri Seligson

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Internships for Homeschool High School, Interview with Sherri Seligson.

Internships for Homeschool High School, Interview with Sherri Seligson

When Vicki met Sherri Seligson a few years ago at the beloved 2:1 Conference for homeschool bloggers, she was so excited to find a new friend who is a scientist (Marine Biologist) AND s teacher about internships. It is a great combination!

Many of you are familiar with Sherri through her high school science texts for Apologia AND her marvelous teaching videos (you can check them out on her YouTube channel). BUT you may not be familiar with her guide for internships for homeschool high school.

Vicki asked Sherri to talk today about internships. Homeschool high schoolers are in unique positions to develop internships as Career Exploration and transcript building experiences, so check out this interview with Sherri.

Sherri started out her career as a marine biologist at Disney World. She loved her job but when she started having kids, she and her husband decided she needed a “promotion” to homeschooling mom! They have considered homeschooling their kids as a calling from God.

Sherri homeschooled her four children through graduation. They are grown now. One is doing cancer research and is a profession, one is a full-time musician, one is working on her Masters degree in Counseling, and the youngest is in the Air Force and getting his medical degree.

Sherri has also taught Science to homeschoolers for years. Her mission there is: Seeing God’s hand in creation. She has also written Apologia’s Marine Biology and General Science courses, along with their instructional videos.

Internships for homeschool high school

Sherri has authored an Internship curriculum. It got started when a son was looking at dual-enrollment courses at community college. He saw an internship course in the course catalogue, and felt inspired to find an internship on his own at a video production company. SO he dropped by, applied, interviewed on the spot and was accepted.

Sherri decided to capture his internship for homeschool high school transcript. She wanted to document his experience so she developed:

weekly questions for him to answer
interview questions for him to ask three coworkers (such as: If you could do this differently, what would you do to prepare themselves for this kind of work? What kind of college directions would they suggest?)
logged hours with time and what work he did
wrote reflections on business experience and practical skills he learned

On the transcript Sherri called the course: Executive Internship.

When her homeschool friends heard about the internship and the ways they documented it, they wanted tips on how they could create internships for their teens. Sherri put together a workbook to help them. This became her popular Internship Guide.

Want some internship tips from Sherri?

Give your teens guidance on health and safety.
Explore interests and passions with them.
Look for local businesses that use skills that align with these interests. For instance, if a teen is interested in fashion design, there probably are not many local internships available, but look around at things that use some of the skills of fashion: tailors, upholstery makers, etc.
Work on networking skills to find people who have those businesses (church, work, organizations).
Create an experiential resume. (7Sisters has a guide on how to do experiential resumes, btw.)
When they find an internship, create an agreement on expectations (including length of time of internship)
Teach them initiative so they find productive things to do (cleaning, tidying) if there is downtime on the job
Show a good attitude
Show good people skills
Dress appropriately and use good hygiene
Learn interview skills

One of the best things her son got out of that internship was that he did NOT want to go into the video production field. He could only have known that by being in that atmosphere. (He is her son who became a professional musician.)

Finding out what your teen DOESN’T want to do is valuable. Why waste four years of college on something they will hate? (It also saves LOTS of money on a wasted college education.)

Internships look great on a homeschool transcript. College admissions officers like to see internships because it shows initiative and the ability to stick with what they start.

Another benefit: sometimes internships can become paid internships.

For career-bound teens, sometimes internships open the door for career training or an actual job. When employers see a good intern, they sometimes want to keep them on afterwards.

Notes for parents:

It is okay to get to know the employer yourself. That way if something comes up, you already have that connection. Don’t helicopter, just be polite and familiar to the employers. Know that these adults are influential (hopefully for good).
With family businesses, count the educational and new things your teen is learning.
Volunteer opportunities can be internships, also. Here’s an episode on virtual volunteer opportunities from Homeschooling with Technology podcast.