OUSD Internship Readiness Fair 2015

People always have something negative to say about Oakland and especially Oakland public schools.  Although they are right in some ways, but they are also very wrong in other ways.  When I hear, "Oakland don't do nothing for their students"....its hella irritating.  Well first because I work for Oakland Unified, and I know that I am working really hard for my teachers.  So its just disrespectful to all of the hard working people that are working at the schools to transform student lives. And one way that is happening, that's been happening, has been through our career themed academies.  We call it Linked Learning.  Career themed academies provides a holistic approach to learning. Where teachers are working in teams, all subject areas are focused on a particular career industry, students are apart of a small learning community, students get extra support, students participate in career related experiences.  

So me and 3 other women, Courtney Riley, Claire Mueller, and Megan Cabral, we help to assist teachers with all the above! LOL, but the core part of our job is helping to connect teachers to career related experiences for students.  We want students to have guest speakers, career panels, job shadows, career explorations visits, and much more.  This way, students are exposed to many different types of careers.    One of the most impactful experience for students to have is an internship.

We are just getting started with internship recruitment.  Internships are a great way for students to get hands-on work experience in an industry that aligns with their pathway and/or interest. To help prepare our students for internships, we started to have an annual Internship Readiness Fair.  And this year, my team, organized and executed the fair with superb organization.  I was really impressed and please to work with the women I stated above.

We partnered with Union Bank who had a financial literacy station, LinkedIn who conducted an online professional network presentation, East Bay College Fund who educated students on scholarships.  The bulk of the event was led by volunteers who conducted mock interviews for students and reviewed resumes.  The volunteers were great and super eager to interact with our students.

I just wanted to take some time to highlight our Internship Readiness Fair, and show that Oakland is doing great things for its students.  We have to remain as conscious of the good as we do the bad!

I'm just saying!

Linked Learning


****Special shoutout to Resonja Willoughby, my mother, who played volunteer photographer for the event****