Hundreds of High School Students Are Celebrated for Their Learning in Summer Internships

Hundreds of high school students who got the most out of their summer came together to celebrate all they learned during their break from school. They were interns in local businesses and agencies, learning about their possible future careers while gaining important skills to use in their professional lives and in school. On Thursday, July 10, the students crowded into the Cypress Mandela Training Center in East Oakland for OUSD's annual Demonstration of Mastery. It's when the young people shared what they learned this summer with educators, families, business and community leaders, and others.

"I started working when I was 12 at Candlestick Park as an usherette," Interim Superintendent Dr. Denise Saddler said in her opening speech. "And I know that had an impact on me learning how to work with people, certainly how to run up and down stairs, and also just to be connected with the world of work. So, I know how important this is."

New Oakland High School graduate, Airieanna Murrell, spoke at the opening ceremony and explained the kind of difference becoming an intern made in her life. "In the summer of 2022, I became a youth mentor at a Community Reading Buddies internship, and I was nervous at first. But once I started working with these elementary school kids, everything clicked. I adjusted my teaching style to support their reading skills, made them feel seen. And after doing that, I saw my own potential, as well."

The students interned in a wide variety of professional spaces, including construction, utilities, transportation, media, healthcare, and education. The evening at Cypress Mandela is an annual celebration of the ECCCO (Explore College, Career, & Community Options) program. "When we go out to the real world, we're going to be better prepared. That's actually a really big impact in my life. Oh, I'm getting ready, I'm getting prepared to know the real world. This is actually going to help me a lot. This is real work stuff," said rising Castlemont High School sophomore Steven Rauda about his internship at ECCCO Civic Design, in which he did mural painting, building, and digital fabrication. He shared the details of his internship with numerous people, including former Board of Education President and Castlemont graduate Gary Yee (photo).

Cypress Mandela Training Center was not only the host for the evening, but it was also where a lot of students interned. One such student was Diego Diaz, who just graduated from Madison Park Academy. He said, "This program wasn't like anything I had done before and it has definitely helped me mature and grow not only as a student but also as the young man I'm becoming. Without the internship at Cypress Mandela I wouldn't have been able to get the exposure I needed to be sure that I want to join the trades."

For the bulk of the event, students stood at tables, and when people approached them, they shared their professional experiences using their original PowerPoint presentations. Zaynab Elbgal is a rising junior at Oakland High, where she completed her internship at a free summer camp that supports 6- and 7-year-old students. "It was a very fun experience. I think that this is something I would definitely come back to. It's a way for students to dive into cultural history and their own backgrounds. They find environmentally safe ways to have fun and activities, and it kind of grows their connection with their roots and their connection with Mother Earth."

"The experience… it changes your perspective on your community because you're helping out and making a change," said Castlemont rising senior Kayori Wright, who also worked at ECCCO Civic Design. "If you just sit around, and you’re just, 'oh, I wish this could happen, I wish that could happen.' But when you're actually doing it, you're making a change, you're like, 'I see my artwork downtown,' or 'I see my artwork at the BART station.' Like you're just seeing your art out in the world, it makes you happy… It makes me feel more invested in my community because I invested in it myself."

Students shared how their internship experiences would relate to careers they aspire to. Jayden Le is a rising sophomore at Oakland High who worked at an architecture firm. "Since I learned all these skills, I can use them in engineering and any type of field. Architecture, designing things, what I could get out of it, what I can apply in the future… I'm interested in aerospace engineering. Although architecture is mostly designing buildings, it could also lead to diverse stuff, like you could build spacecraft, planes, and stuff like that."

The Demonstration of Mastery highlights the positive impact that linked learning has on the educational process for Oakland students, helping connect their classroom learning to their potential future careers. "OUSD is committed to ensuring that every student graduates well-prepared for success in college, career, and community. We achieve this by offering rigorous academics, cultivating essential soft skills, and creating real-world learning opportunities, such as the ECCCO Summer Internship Program," explained Interim Superintendent Dr. Saddler.