WorkX, the High School’s work experience program, plans to run a weekly summer speaker series this year. This event was created as a result of the pandemic last summer.
In a typical school year, the three main components of WorkX consist of summer internships, workplace visits and career skill workshops. Last year, all workplace visits were canceled, career skill workshop content was moved online and the majority of summer internships were also moved online. However, for the 2021 summer, workshops will take place over Zoom and summer internships may be in-person.
WorkX Committee Member Barbara Kim said while they are hoping to have internships take place in-person, how safe the situation is will be assessed closer to summer.
“We will be flexible and we’ll see what the situation is like at that time and what’s the safest experience for the students and for the workplaces,” she said. “We will have a mix of both, although we’re aiming to get as many as we can in-person if the situation allows us to do that.”
At the start of the 2019-20 school year, Romy Chavin (’21) and Mateo Farina (’21) were selected to join the WorkX team as interns. Initially, their job was to run the social media account, spread information about the program, and answer students’ questions. Yet, because many internships did not take place as usual last year, Chavin and Farina along with Kim and Director of Office of Student Advising Anne Richardson formed the speaker series.
Due to its success last year, Kim said they are planning for the speaker series to take place again this summer.
We’re aiming for the speaker series to go forward similar to last year because I think it was a tremendous success thanks to our interns.
— WorkX Committee Member Barbara Kim
“We’re aiming for the speaker series to go forward similar to last year because I think it was a tremendous success thanks to our interns,” she said.
Farina said each webinar featured speakers from different companies who would talk to students about their work experience, as well as answer questions.
Farina said he and Chavin thought a large value of the in person internships were being able to learn about the workplace experiences. He and Chavin thought the speaker series was an effective way to replicate this online, allowing students to get a better sense of what fields they may be interested in.
“You’d miss out on the experience of being in the workplace and being an intern physically there, but what we learned is just the value of being able to see what the workplace environment is like,” he said. “Then we thought that the speaker series was the best way to do that.”
Last year, speakers came from a range of companies, including Amazon, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The New York Times, Google and Human Rights Watch. Farina said, for each session, the interns moderated the discussion, and Kim was also on the Zoom. When the Q&A started, questions asked to the speaker came from the live chat. There were also pre-written questions as backup.
You’d miss out on the experience of being in the workplace and being an intern physically there, but what we learned is just the value of being able to see what the workplace environment is like. We thought that the speaker series was the best way to do that.
— Mateo Farina ('21)
Chavin said it was valuable to be able to have a conversation with the speakers from the companies.
“It was really amazing to be able to talk to these people who I otherwise never would have been able to have,” she said.
Chavin said the speaker series is a way for students to understand different paths to certain careers.
“It was just a great opportunity for students to ask questions to people in these fields that they’re potentially interested in and understand what a typical or atypical path to getting to the career you want to looks like,” she said.
Kim said Grade 11 students will soon be interviewed for the positions of WorkX interns. Once chosen, Chavin and Farina will train them using their own experiences from certain positions they have held.
Farina said he is excited to help the new interns and see how the series improves; he said there will always be a way to further enhance what work has already been done.
“I’m really excited for the next interns and helping coach them through Romy and I’s experiences and see what they can add to it,” he said. “I’m excited to see what it goes through, and I think that there’s a good foundation, but there’s obviously always something to add to it.”
