KIPP STAR Harlem College Prep Elementary School, New York, NY
I spent the past school year working with children under a few different programs, as a homework tutor, after school mentor, and classroom helper. Most of my experience surrounding education heavily involved, and sometimes only involved, working with children with minimal contact with their teachers or administration. As someone who is interested in education reform and policy, I needed to branch out and see the work necessary to make a school and these programs run, which often is behind the scenes and forgotten about. The Alumni Sponsored Internship Program allowed me the opportunity to learn about the administrative side of education and gain the relevant skills necessary to be involved this coming school year.
As an intern under the Director of Operations at KIPP STAR Harlem Elementary School, I worked on a variety of projects to help close out the school year and prepare to usher in the new one. Many of the projects we started on involved cleaning up and making sense of things. There were closets filled with piles of uniforms and empty containers that we sorted through, folding and labeling and stacking. While some projects took only a few hours of non-stop work, others took days, even weeks. I once spent an entire week making 15 copies of a paper book, with six to seven books per letter of the alphabet. The entire room smelt like toner and at some point, the printers began to give out from printing hundreds of copies nonstop. Every few minutes I had to get up to add more paper, check the toner, add a new story, sort the ones already printed, and fix the never-ending issues inside the printer, which involved sticking my entire arm into the machine to fix the gears, developing a fear I never thought I would have. I spent another week organizing and creating flashcard packs that the students would use to learn vocabulary that would help them to read.
While at times the work was difficult, the faculty at the elementary school were warm, welcoming, and always willing to lend a hand. Whether it was fixing the laminator when it broke or pointing me in the right direction when the maze of closets confused me, they never hesitated. I was able to hold conversations with the teachers about their experience teaching at both charter and public schools and listen to a variety of opinions. There was a teacher who focused on specialized education and talked about the different techniques she used with her students as well as the websites they used for their assessments. I learned what teachers had to go through when I sat in on a few demos for teachers they were looking to hire for the new school year. I would sit on the small, blue chairs and be handed a pencil and math worksheet full of multiplication problems. The teachers who sat in would pretend to be rowdy students who would try to get me to talk to them while the teacher lectured or would solve the problems with completely incorrect answers to see if the teacher noticed. It was an aspect of the hiring process that I never had really considered before, and while it was interesting, it did make me a bit nervous for the day I would have to do that.
The Director of Operations, who I interned under, gave me a newfound appreciation for the organization needed to ensure that everything ran smoothly. The end of the school year meant a number of events to celebrate the students’ success and hard work, including a carnival field day and award ceremony. I sat in on the meetings held between the teachers and administration to go through detailed schedules with notes and charts for even simple things like serving Icees and water to the students. Every single book in the school was accounted for and labeled, sorted, and sent to a classroom depending on its difficulty. Fake coins were counted, penny by penny, to make sure that every classroom had the same amount. As a student in school, it had always seemed like a bit of chaos was what determined everything, not meticulous detail and attention.
One of the more inspiring things I found in the school was its connection to the community. Located in one of the more historical parts of New York, the school celebrated that fact. The books were about the Harlem Renaissance and the many famous people to emerge from this area. There were stories that involved characters of all sorts of shades and from different backgrounds. They sometimes spoke Spanish or had a different way of dressing. The students could see themselves in these books, something I had always wanted growing up. Every student who walked into the building could have breakfast, and if they were late, they were still given a breakfast bar at the very least. They gave out books for the students to take home. At the end of the school year, they were given thick, heavy homework packets full of problems, but also with a link that would allow them to read as many books as they wanted. There were posters and constant reminders that they would one day go to college, everything from a poster congratulating them as the Class of 2035 to the names of the classes being colleges like Spellman and Julliard.
Although the internship was focused on working with administration, I still had the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the students, which were some of the best moments. During the carnival, I handed out Icees to the students and watched as they did a happy dance when they got their favorite flavor. During the award ceremony, I painted a paper carpet for them to walk on as they received their awards. Students would pass by and tell me how beautiful the colors were and how excited they were to see it. I hadn’t realized I how much I would miss working with children until this internship, if I was to continue toward the route of education reform and policy, which is often removed from daily interaction with students. It’s definitely something to keep in mind as I continue down my career path, and it was helpful to learn this fact about myself in the beginning of it.
As I prepare to go back to Williams for the upcoming school year, I can use the skills I learned to help me with the plans I have for Williamstown Elementary School and creating a new program there. Had it not been for this internship, I would not have had the experience or knowledge necessary to coordinate and plan the logistics with the administration there, but now I feel prepared and excited to take on that task. I can’t thank the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program, and specifically, Jeffrey Hines ’77, for allowing me the opportunity to learn about another dimension of education and gain insight into a school I’ve never had exposure to, ultimately learning more about myself as well as the educational field.
Megamenu Social