PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Students at Miss Hall's School are honing in on their interests with the Horizons program.

 

The program helps students focus on the personal and civic development. Starting in Grade 9, they explore their identity, do a ceramics project and work in the greenhouse. As sophomores, they focus on civic engagement and global citizenship. As juniors and seniors, they are able to volunteer and intern at places that interest them.

 

"We take that piece of looking at self and the student as a whole person, and then applying that sophomore year, looking at what does being civically engaged look like. What does it look like here at Miss Hall's, what does it look like in our community? And then what does it look like globally?" said program Director Caterina Penna.

 

"We do have international students, and also students from all over the country. ... it is the issues that they care about most that we talk about here."

 

Penna said the dicussions include how they could advocate on these issues and what pathways are available locally and globally.

 

Miss Hall's is a day and boarding high school for girls, educating about 200 students from more than 20 countries and a dozen states. 

 

The school has had more than 75 site partners throughout the county; this year, about 50 organizations and businesses are working with students. One of the newest partners is Berkshire Design Inc., as some students had brought up an interest in architecture and working with local architects. 

 

"We're really just hoping to give them a good, valuable experience," said Kerry Bartini, the firm's principal architect. "That they can really get a good idea of what architecture is about, what happens on a day-to-day basis in both in the office and in the field."

 

She said the work isn't just about drawing and designing, it's also  troubleshooting and documenting conditions and "really in seeing the progress and being in the building." 

 

Penna said it was important for the young women to see women in STEM (science, tech, engineering and math) and traditionally male roles. 

 

"I really was excited about Kerry because it is a STEM field, and we are able to see what a strong leader she is in the community, and have students be able to intern there," she said.

 

Students do their internships and volunteering from November through May. At the end of the program, they do a project on their experience.

 

"It's 19 to 20 sessions and then at the end, the seniors do a senior project," Penna said. "They present to the school, and they have projects about the location and the experience they had."

 

Izzy Aponte, a senior, is interning at Morningside Community School for a second year. They want to be a child psychologist and said their time at the school has helped determine .

 

"I worked in a kindergarten classroom. I basically just helped them with their small groups at that time, so helping them with their reading and their spelling," Aponte said. "I really enjoy working with kids. I want to be a child psychologist, so not necessarily education, but pretty close in fields, and I like working with kindergarten and below."

 

They liked it so much they asked go to back. Aponte said they were given more freedom this year so started doing some teaching. 

 

"Sometimes the second teacher wouldn't be there, so I would be teaching them math, I would read them books," they said.

 

Aponte said the Horizons program has helped them get experience and will help them with their resume.

 

"It enables me to have some sort of experience before college, so that then, if there's an opportunity to get a job, even if it's just like an assistant in an elementary school, I can be doing that while getting my degree in college," they said. "I just think it's a good way to prepare us for something that we want to do, rather than just giving us an internship."

 

Another senior, Sara Rahiman, is interested in social justice and being a lawyer. Last year, she interned with the Berkshire Center for Justice and this year, has scored an internship in state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier's office.

 

"I'm very passionate about justice and activism. So I was interning with a nonprofit organization and nonprofit lawyer, and I was able to learn more about civic engagement in the Berkshires, what it means in general, and also just speak and sit with a lawyer, every single day," she said.

 

Rahiman is also interested in working in government. She said she wants to let students know to be sure to ask questions and communicate with site leaders to ensure they have the best experience in their internship.

 

"I think what I would tell the younger students I learned is that communication is really important, and just because you're in the same room as someone, it doesn't mean that you're understanding exactly what they're doing or how the site works," she said. "And I think to keep close contact and ask questions to your site supervisor at any chance you possibly can and learn from them gives you a better experience and a more fulfilling time there." 

 

The Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC) is another partner that works with students and helps them find careers that they might be interested in and teaching them iterative design, computer-aided design (CAD) software, and more.

 

"Part of our mandate is helping educate youth in Berkshire County about careers in STEM so we don't typically hire interns where we're expecting an economic return on the work that they're doing. It's just part of our mission to help show them careers that they might be interested in down the road," said Tim Butterworth, BIC director for applied technology.

 

Not all the students go off-site for the internships. The school's Director of Communication David Smith has students learning how to do content collection, taking photos and doing write-ups for the school share.

 

He said it's important for the students to try new things to see if it's a career they may like, or not..

 

"The sooner you can figure that out or have some insight into, do I want to work in a school? Do I want to work in a hospital or health care? Do I want to work with animals? Do I like working with kids? It's helpful to figure that stuff out sooner," he said.