dcwins.com
Birmingham Promise has opened applications for next year’s seniors in Birmingham City Schools to compete for paid internships that are available at a range of local businesses. The deadline for applications for the fall 2023 internships is April 7.
The program allows Birmingham City Schools students to earn $15 an hour while gaining valuable work experience and job skills. More than 80 local employers offer internships through Birmingham Promise in high-demand fields such as health care, engineering, business and technology. Internships will be offered during the fall and spring semester for the Class of 2024.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to earn money and begin laying a foundation for career success,” said Samantha Williams, executive director of Birmingham Promise. “We encourage all students and their families to take the time to explore the internships offered through Birmingham Promise.”
To participate, students must have a 2.0 grade average and be on track to graduate on time. They must also be recommended by an educator in their school and go through an application, training and interview process.
The program was launched as a pilot in 2019. It has provided more than 200 internships to students in Birmingham City Schools.
As a senior at Huffman High School in the spring of 2022, Amer Rice worked as an intern at the Office of the Provost at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Rice said the experience had a tremendous impact in setting him on a path to success.
His first-day jitters quickly faded away as his colleagues treated him as an equal, a professional who was there to do a job and fully capable of doing it. Whether he was working at the front desk and answering phone calls, or helping with UAB graduation ceremonies, or meeting the president of the university, he had ample opportunities to learn new skills, get job advice and begin laying a foundation for what he hopes will be a career in the law.
“It was great,” Rice said. “It helped me build up better confidence in myself and build up my communications skills.”
Rice is now studying criminal justice at Jacksonville State University, with tuition coming from the Birmingham Promise scholarship program. He has advice for students who will make up Birmingham’s Class of 2024 and are eligible for the internship program.
“Apply,” Rice said. “It changed my life completely, and it could change your life, too.”
Brittney McClure, Internship Program Manager for Birmingham Promise, said once students apply and a counselor verifies they meet program requirements, Birmingham Promise will provide a resume template and help the interns with resume writing to move forward with the application process. The effort will pay off in the long run, she said.
“Experience has demonstrated that paid internships provide students with long-lasting benefits, including stronger professional networks and higher earning power over the course of their career,” she said. “We don’t want anyone to miss out on this chance.”
For more information and a link to the online application, students can go here: https://birminghampromise.org/apprenticeships-and-internships/. Students may also email workbasedlearning@birminghampromise.org for more information.
Birmingham Promise provides up to four years of tuition assistance for graduates of Birmingham City Schools who attend public colleges and universities in Alabama. It also manages a paid internship program that allows high school seniors to build valuable work experience. For more information on Birmingham Promise, visit http://www.birminghampromise.org/ or follow on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
