Drury High Program Gives Teens Chance To Learn By Doing

By Phyllis McGuire
Special to iBerkshires
06:43PM / Friday, April 09, 2010

Drury High seniors Suzannah Grant, left, Rebecca Dobbert and Zachery Richards are learning by doing through the school's internship program.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — There's a group of seniors leaving the high school every day at noon. They're participating in a new school tradition — but it's not skipping.

Instead, they're getting the chance to see what the world may offer once they leave Drury High School as participants in the school's Internship Program. They spend the last few hours of every school day "learning by doing" outside the classroom. 
 
This year, 37 students are interning in various fields, including physical therapy, nursing and dentistry.

"The program has grown since it was initiated eight years ago, as students and faculty became aware of the importance of career choice," said Michelle Boyer-Vivori, internship coordinator. 
  
The internships offer an opportunity for students to explore the fields in which they are interested.

"It is a valuable experience as it may reaffirm a student's desire to pursue a career in a particular field or a student may discover it is not what he or she imagined," said Boyer-Vivori.

Zachery Richards' love of sports as well as the injuries he has sustained as an athlete influenced his decision to pursue a career in athletic training. "It combines athletics and the medical field," he explained.
 
Richards is interning at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where his mentor is Matthew Boillat, head athletic trainer.

When MCLA added athletic training to its roster of majors in 2009, it was the only four-year program in Berkshire County and adjacent New York and Vermont. 

Richards said he has learned a lot listening to Boillat talk. "Athletic training language and medical language are different from what we learn in school," Richards pointed out. 

At MCLA's training room, some students use the exercise equipment to keep fit, other students come in for rehabilitation therapy. Richards has observed treatments he himself may provide when his wish to be an athletic trainer is fulfilled. To that end, he will go on to Springfield College in September. "Its athletic training program is rated in the top five in the nation," he said enthusiastically.
   
Rebecca Dobbert has had a passion for animals since she was a toddler, and will study veterinary technology at Mount Ida College.

"I've always been surrounded by animals," Dobbert said. "When I was growing up my father built a chicken coop and we raised chickens. We also had a horse and dogs. In the past few years, we've had rabbits, cats and dogs." Most of the animals that Dobbert brought home were rescued or strays. 

Dobbert is aware that a veterinarian does more than give medical aid to sick or injured animal. "You have to be sensitive to the owner's feelings, especially if an animal they think of as part of the family needs to be euthanized," she said. 

Now as an intern at North County Veterinary Hospital in North Adams, shadowing her mentor Dr. Laura Eisler and technician Missy Meyer-Wood, Dobbert has been involved in hands-on work with animals.
 
"I've performed heart worm tests, watched surgery, learned to vaccinate and sat in on consultations," she said. 

"I'm thrilled to be going into that field of study," she added. "It's everything I thought it would be."
 
Because John P. Erdeski is a people person, his classmates believe he would make a good politician. So for his internship, he was matched with state Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams.

"We had one with Bosley in the past, so we knew the door was open," said Boyer-Vivori.
 
One of the tasks assigned to Erdeski was to answer phones at Bosley's office in North Adams. 

"One day, a woman called wanting to get a discount on her cable bill," the teen recalled. Erdeski informed Bosley of the woman's request; Bosley contacted the cable company and arranged for her to receive the lower rate for cable service to which she was entitled as a resident of senior housing.

Until then, Erdeski did not think people sought Bosley's help with that type of problem. However, like anyone else keeping abreast of what is happening in our corner of the world, Erdeski knows Bosley also handles pressing, complicated issues.
 
When asked about the criticism certain quarters spewed on Bosley when he announced he would enter the race for Berkshire County sheriff, Erdesk commented, "You have to be thick-skinned to be a politician." 

Thick-skinned or not, Erdeski is interested in the political field, and is looking forward to studying political science at Norwich (Vt.) University.
  
Unlike Erdeski, Suzannah Grant will not embark on her college journey in September.

"I joined the Air National Guard," she said, "and will do a year's training before I go to college."

Grant is interning at Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, and has gained praise from her mentor Kate Merrigan, UNITY program coordinator, NBCC. "Suzannah has been a real sport and really game for taking on complex tasks related to the 411 in 413 Youth Conference," Merrigan said.

"It has been a challenging responsibility," said Grant, who aspires to being a social worker. "But I am interested in the community, especially children and teenagers."

The Berkshire Youth Development Project, a collaborative effort of the NBCC, the Pittsfield Prevention Partnership, and the Railroad Street Youth Project/South Berkshire Community Coalition, is hosting its 4th annual 411 in the 413 Youth Conference on this Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10. All Berkshire County public high schools and some private schools were invited to send up to 10 students each to participate at no cost.

Grant was the lead planner for the conference, which entailed arranging for busing to/from the conference, calling school staff, and registering students for the conference.

"And she has done it with patience, even when the work sometimes got frustrating," said Merrigan, adding. "I am grateful that Drury and other schools have arrangements that allow seniors to get out into the community and experience different types of work and work environments."