Many people think internships are for college students, but there are many opportunities for high school students as well.
Just ask Shanise Johnson.
As a sophomore at Soldan International Studies High School in 1995, she landed her first job at Moser & Marsalek, P.C. performing clerical duties like typing, filing, researching and taking phone calls.
“The experiences at the law firm were so dynamic,” said Johnson.
So much so that she went on to get her bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Saint Louis University and her master’s in business administration from Webster University.
She is now the director of St. Louis Internship Program, the very agency that helped her get her first job.
The program, also known as SLIP, takes high school sophomores and juniors from St. Louis Public Schools out of the classroom and places them in the real world of work.
“Our goal is to empower youth to succeed by creating a link between the workforce of today and the workforce of tomorrow,” Johnson said of SLIP.
Students attend 10 training sessions on Saturdays at UMSL that focus on basic job skills – when to call in sick, how to dress decently and how to write a resume – along with practical work experience.
After the training period, the students go on to eight-week, paid internships, earning $7.25 an hour from sponsoring businesses for a 35- to 40-hour workweek.
Wages for students placed with nonprofit organizations are paid for by donations from individuals or fundraising.
Interns work in finance, dentistry, engineering, government, consulting and health care, among other industries.
Most of the internships are at law firms, such as Armstrong Teasdale LLP and Bryan Cave LLP.
Nearly all of the students complete high school and go on to college or other post-secondary training.
Aftermath of Rodney King
Bruce Green started his career in 1995 as a high school intern in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney Office and said his internship helped him fine-tune his work skills and knowledge.
It was also through SLIP that he found his professional calling to be teaching and not practicing law.
“When I looked at the hours the attorneys were working, some would get there at 7 in the morning and stay until 7 or 8 at night,” Green said. “I decided I didn’t want to do that because I was a family man. I could have spent thousands and thousands of dollars going to law school but I found that I wanted to do something else.”
SLIP has its roots in the 1992 Rodney King trial. Mystified by the tragic aftermath of King’s beating by Los Angeles police officers, Thomas C. Hullverson wanted to create an organization designed to give hope and direction to the inner-city youth living in St. Louis.
With that Hullverson partnered with St. Louis Public Schools, Bar Association of Metro St. Louis and Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club to provide funding for 52 students to get summertime work in the legal community.
Since its inception, the program has served over 2,900 students.
“I know what the program did for me, and this is my way of giving back,” said Green, now a principal at Gateway Middle School and a minister.
“They truly live up to their motto to truly change lives.”
The program offers ACT prep and tuition assistance, scholarship opportunities, scholarship notifications and a variety of other helpful programs.
Program staffers also help the interns with jobs or college applications and find jobs after the internship.
St. Louis Internship Program is made possible through the support of St. Louis Social Venture Partners (SVP), which awarded SLIP $25,000 for three years.
“We help them do a lot of marketing, helped them restructure their board and helped them come up with a direction,” Deanna Daughhetee, SVP chairwoman, said of the partnership.
“We have a great working relationship and they have a very dedicated director, Shanise.”
To apply with SLIP, students must:
? be a St. Louis Public Schools student
? be a high school sophomore or junior
? have at least a 2.0 grade point average
? be eligible for free or reduced lunch
? have good citizenship
? have good attendance, and
? be committed to participating in all program activities.
Every year applications are due Dec. 15. For more information, go to www.stlouisinternship.org.
