Andrea Johnson/MDN Destiny Aguilar, Mikel Bahl and Kelsee Hoyt, seniors at Minot High School-Magic City Campus, all had unpaid internships last fall and earned high school credit as part of Minot High’s new Minot High School Senior Internship.

Minot High School senior Kelsee Hoyt decided that she would prefer to teach elementary students instead of high school students, while classmate Mikel Bahl is now 100 percent sure that he would like to be a lawyer.

Hoyt, Bahl, and their classmate Destiny Aguilar were among 11 seniors who took part in the school’s new Senior Internship Program during the fall semester.

“Last year I wanted to be an anesthesiologist, so I job shadowed,” Bahl said. “I almost passed out.”

Minot High also offers its students a chance to job shadow professionals for a few hours in a career area that they find interesting. The students said they can do two job shadows each school year.

Ben Berg, a business teacher at Magic City Campus and the coordinator for the Senior Internship Program, said the school is encouraging its students to do job shadowing as a way to try out a job. Then, if they want to have more exposure, they can apply to be an intern for someone who works in that career field.

Bahl, having decided that life in an operating theater is not for him, landed an internship at the Pringle and Herigstad Law Firm working with Ryan Sandberg.

Prospective interns had to first apply for the program and had to have a good academic record, demonstrate good character, and submit letters of recommendation. They also had to interview at the business where they hoped to intern.

The unpaid interns spent 65 onsite hours at their chosen sites.

Bahl said he had an opportunity to do research using public information and observed the lawyer make arguments at trial.

One day Berg took him to court to observe eviction cases.

Bahl said the experience was valuable and gave him a taste of what it would be like to work in the legal profession. He thinks he would like to attend law school, work in a state’s attorney’s office for a few years to get his feet wet, and eventually work in corporate law.

Hoyt, who loves math and would like to become a teacher, has worked with younger children at the elementary level and wanted to compare that experience with teaching at the high school level.

She worked with math teachers Zane Alexander at Central Campus and Eric Woodbeck at Magic City Campus. This involved doing a lot of observing and seeing how the teachers prepared for the next day’s lesson. Towards the end of the internship she designed her own lesson plan and taught the lesson to a freshmen class at Central Campus and to seniors at Magic City Campus.

She also gained a healthy respect for how much work her high school teachers do.

But teaching a high school class is probably not for her, said Hoyt.

“I just felt more comfortable working with little kids,” said Hoyt, who thought about how she wants to feel at the end of a hard day of teaching and thought she would most enjoy an elementary classroom.

Destiny Aguilar, who is interested in a real estate career, was an intern at Century 21. She saw a Realtor show a house and saw how much paperwork is involved in a home sale.

She also learned that Realtors make their money off commissions and that people who have been in the business longer earn a larger share of the profits.

Realtors also try to maintain connections with past clients. Aguilar observed the way a Realtor at the office sent out cards with small gifts on the anniversary of a home purchase to past clients. Perhaps those people will remember the Realtor when it is time to buy or sell their next home.

All of the students said the internship was a positive experience that provided them with more information about careers than they could ever have gained from the classroom.

A lawyer told Bahl that even law students don’t get the kind of experience he had during his internship.

Berg said the students also spent 10 hours in a job readiness seminar and put together a portfolio reflecting on what they had done and learned during their unpaid internships.

At the end of the class, the students had earned 1/2 credit on their high school transcripts. A few of them also had job offers from the businesses where they had interned.

Berg said there will be about 20 students in the next Senior Internship Program this fall. High school personnel are lining up potential internships for students at area businesses. Business owners who are interested in working with a student should call Berg at the high school.