Anonymous wrote:My son participated last year as a rising Junior. He loved it. He was assigned to Montgomery Parks. He learned how to tree climb, train animals, identify invasive plants, and what happens behind the scenes at nature centers and gardens, to name a few of the shadowing jobs.

The organizer/leader of the Summer Rise in Parks isn't great. There is no overarching goal or planning unfortunately. They end up emailing as many staffers in different departments as they can, without any real guidance, and hope they can come up with something to entertain the kids for a half day/day. The staff do as much as they can with little to no information about the students, their interests, and what they've done already, but it would be a lot better, both for the kids and staff, if the organizer actually had things structured in some sort of cohesive manner, perhaps where one experience built upon another, etc. I know the attendance for the Parks program has been dwindling, maybe as a result of these issues.

Students are largely driven around to different locations to hear staff talk about their jobs. There might be some activities/small projects they can engage in depending on the site location for that day, but it's not working in a traditional sense.

Anonymous wrote:Just received this in my inbox: apparently it's an month-long career opportunity for juniors and seniors in July 2022. Registration is this week.

However, I don't know what this entails. Is this a real job? Or just orientation about different careers?

If your child did this, did they find it helped them pick a course of study in college, or figure out what career they might be interested in? My junior has no clue.

I had marked out this summer for my junior to get a job, get his college short list done and perhaps essays started, maybe visit some colleges, as well as prep for the SAT, so I'm wondering if this is worth the time or not.

It’s a good, short program to give kids who aren’t well-connected an internship. Both my kids did it as rising juniors and then the next year, they used what they learned to get much better internships.

Bringing this thread up again.

My kid was advised to apply to RISE today because according to his counsellor "you seem like you're gonna go to a good college." Lol.

They told him if he doesn't like his match he shoud decline it.

It's appealing because it's limited hours and he is busy this summer with lots of stuff that kind of makes a full time or regular part time job difficult.

Anyone have experience with this? He wanted to choose the "Finance" path.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jawando started it before he became a Councilmember.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=5043

It's mean for lower income and other marginalized youth.

sounds super boring for them, too. Shadowing is really boring unless the job is really interesting, which most are not.

An actual internship with hands on experience would've been more interesting.

What type of skills do you think a high schooler is bringing to the table for an "actual internship".

+1. Most high schoolers before Junior or Senior year do not have enough skills or even just job facing experience for employers to be willing to pay intern level salary or give them real work to do.
Shadow experiences give students opportunities to see different professions in real life.

There are some government internship programs that folks can look up.

Did anyone else register for the info session tonight at 7:00? Haven't gotten any zoom links yet.

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t these kids old enough for paying jobs? Feels like exploitation of minors IMHO

True of most unpaid summer intern programs.

Aren’t these kids old enough for paying jobs? Feels like exploitation of minors IMHO

My son participated last year as a rising Junior. He loved it. He was assigned to Montgomery Parks. He learned how to tree climb, train animals, identify invasive plants, and what happens behind the scenes at nature centers and gardens, to name a few of the shadowing jobs.

Anonymous wrote:My kids both did it. DD did it sophomore into junior, then had a traditional internship. DS did it sophomore into junior and junior into senior. It was worthwhile for us because our kids don’t need to work and the hours were light enough that they could also do summer school.

What program did they do? What did it involve? Thanks.

My kids both did it. DD did it sophomore into junior, then had a traditional internship. DS did it sophomore into junior and junior into senior. It was worthwhile for us because our kids don’t need to work and the hours were light enough that they could also do summer school.

Seems like it's an internship program for kids who don't have parents pulling strings for them like that.