Yasmine Barboza, left, and Joshua Sukel, both rising seniors at Columbia High School, are interning this summer with the Maplewood Office of Cultural Affairs. Charlotte Steiner, a member of the CHS Class of 2017, is also interning.
MAPLEWOOD, NJ — For three teenagers, this summer will consist of more than lounging by the local pool or sleeping in until the afternoon, thanks to a unique internship program developed between the Maplewood Office of Cultural Affairs and Columbia High School.
The idea of the program is to combine the talents and interests of local high school students with the needs of the Cultural Affairs office, in the process providing them with some practical real-world experience of how to put together programs and promote them in a local government environment.
“We have so many talented students at Columbia High School, many of whom I know are interested in the arts. As the Office of Cultural Affairs, I wanted to create opportunities for students to use their talents for some local causes,” Office of Cultural Affairs Coordinator Andrew Fishman said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “They are all helping with administration in the office, and also helping design and maintain websites, maintaining presence on social media accounts that the departments runs, and also creating content for the website and social media with photos, videos and information about upcoming events.”
Fishman said that he reached out to James Manno, supervisor of the CHS fine arts department, for the South Orange-Maplewood School District, and information about the internship opportunity was passed along to individual teachers to encourage students to apply.
Three students from CHS took on internships this summer, and each brings a different set of interests and abilities to the table. Charlotte Steiner, a 2017 CHS graduate, will assist with live music projects, including the concert series at the Springfield Avenue Gazebo before heading to Westminster Choir College in Princeton in the fall.
Yasmine Barboza, a rising senior year at Columbia, will apply her interest in graphic design to posters, banners and web content, promoting recreation and cultural activities; Joshua Sukel, also in the CHS Class of 2018, will apply his passion for film and photography and savvy for web design to a wide variety of projects.
Barboza learned about the opportunity from graphic design teacher Cindy Malhotra, with whom she started taking classes during the 2016-2017 school year. Barboza quickly developed an interest in the work.
“I knew that I would be able to incorporate my budding interest in graphic design and apply the knowledge I learned in school, because after interviewing with Mr. Fishman about the internship he explained that we would help them and he wanted to make it a mutual thing where we would also be doing what interested us,” Barboza said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “I was glad to be given the chance in an office to see what it’s like. It’s preparation for the professional world, and I like having the chance to explore it.
“The internship opportunity is something that a lot of kids should try because it’s less pressure than a paying job while you still get a lot of experience,” she continued. “The people who are your bosses are really helpful and will try to incorporate you into the office and try to help you if you have questions, so I think it’s really helpful.”
Sukel also cited the chance to enhance skills learned in the academic setting as one of the biggest draws of the internship program for him.
“I decided to do this program because I didn’t want to lay around all summer. I am doing projects like filming and doing website enhancements for The Woodland that will make it easier on the administrative side to book the space and make website navigation easier,” he said in a recent phone interview with the News-Record. “I want to go to college for film and photography so I thought that it would add to my experience and portfolio.”
Though the program is currently just for the summer, Fishman hopes that eventually it can be an ongoing experience for students that will take place during the school year as well.
“There are so many needs that we have for things like social media and our websites and it’s hard to find the time to constantly update and maintain them, and people are always suggesting to me that I find some high school kids to do that, and that’s what led me to finally make the call,” Fishman said. “These are also things that are so second nature to high school kids and these are the things they do every day so it’s a natural fit to have them take over. It’s a need we have and they are all way better at it than I am.
“Some of the social media we have are multiple Facebook pages for different town venues and activities, and we also have multiple websites that need constant updating for upcoming events or photos or editorial content,” he continued. “One of the students will be making a short video about the history of one of our town buildings. One of the students assisted me in booking a concert series by reaching out to performers and drawing up agreements. I was hoping to give them some real-world experience in the things that interest them and I believe that’s what we have done so far.”
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