New program will offer real-world experience

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Naugatuck High School will begin a new internship program in the fall for students. -FILE PHOTO

NAUGATUCK — Beginning in the coming school year, Naugatuck High School students will have the opportunity to earn credit and real-world experience at the same time.

The high school will start a program that allows students to gain credit for individual internships in careers they are interested in pursuing.

“What we’re proposing here is that our students have a way to earn credit in a work-based, work-study type of situation,” Principal Janice Saam said.

The students could choose to do the internship for a whole year or half a year, which would determine how many credits they would earn.

Saam explained that the places that would host the students would first be vetted by the school’s staff and supervised by the school.

“We certainly don’t want to put our students in some sort of slave-labor situation in the work place. We actually want this to be a way to put their skills to work in a real-world setting,” Saam said.

This program would require a minimum of 40 hours throughout the semester. Students would have to do this on their own time and would be responsible for their own transportation to and from the job.

On top of the work at the job, the students would be required to write journal entries and a small paper about their experience.

This program would be open to juniors and seniors.

Saam said she didn’t know how many students would want to take advantage of this opportunity, but felt that it was important to offer it. She felt the program gives students the opportunity to work in a career they are interested in to see if the work is really right for them.

“It will really help define what they do or do not want to do as potential career,” Saam said.