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Internship program helps introduce high school students to world of work

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 13, 2011 - The pulsing music on the video on the St. Louis Internship Program's website could just as well be its theme song: Get Ready.

Since 1992, the program has helped more than 3,200 students in the St. Louis area get ready for their first taste of what life is like in a corporate environment -- and for many of them, it has provided the incentive they needed to graduate, go on to college and join that world as a full-fledged professional.

"We're thrilled that these graduates today can hold their heads up high and ease their way into the business and professional environment," said Thomas Hullverson, the lawyer who was the inspiration for the program. "It makes a lot of difference in their life."

As the internship program prepares to mark its 20th anniversary with a gala Thursday night at the St. Louis Science Center -- marking the MAGIC of "Making a Greater Individual Commitment" -- those in charge and those who have benefited are celebrating how they have made its slogan come true: "opening worlds of opportunity for St. Louis youth."

Shanise Johnson, who was an intern in 1995 when she was a sophomore at Soldan High School and is now director of the program, put it this way:

"That is an experience I would never trade for the world."

In the Beginning

Hullverson recalled how the program began in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles and how local lawyers and others were quick to help.

"A number of inner-city students were protesting and were restless because they had no opportunity for summer employment," he said. "They were hopeless. I thought, that's a terrible thing, but what as lawyers can we do about it?

"Driving downtown, I thought why not have some kind of internship for financially disadvantaged students and help them throughout the summer. We could place them at any one of 100 different law firms and pay them more than hamburger-flipper wages, which in those days meant paying $7 or $8 an hour."

Within 10 days, he said, a group of lawyers held an early-morning meeting downtown and 50 firms had signed up to take interns that summer.

Today, the program has about three applicants for each slot available, Johnson said. It is open to sophomores or juniors in the St. Louis Public Schools who have at least a C average, are eligible for free or reduced price lunch, have good citizenship and good attendance and are committed to taking part in all the program's activities.

That last requirement helps narrow the field, Johnson said, because it includes a 10-week Saturday morning course in advance of the internships, where the students are introduced to the skills they will need to perform well in the internships and afterward.

The sessions include instruction in decorum, work skills, interpersonal relationships, operation of office equipment and computers, and dressing for success. The standard dress code is a blazer and khaki pants or skirt.

As the program has evolved, Johnson said, more year-round educational activities have been added, such as ACT prep classes with the Princeton Review, more college visits and more workshops about topics like financial aid. Also included is a real-world session where students go into a work environment for a day and go in to complete actual tasks.

"We try to give them a clear idea of what a day of work would be like," she said.

The program quickly spread to more than three dozen other cities, Hullverson said, with lawyers from St. Louis going around the country to give talks at other bar associations. Locally, it grew from law firms to architects, doctors, hospitals, the police force, the mayor's office and others.

Hullverson and Johnson may be proudest of the 99 percent high school graduation rate of the students who have gone through the program, particularly because the interns aren't necessarily all the cream of the academic crop.

"These kids are not selected because their IQs are 150," Hullverson said. "They're selected because they're motivated to get ahead and want to participate and need a job. They are successful beyond our belief."

Early Saturday Mornings

Hullverson cited one case where an intern ended up getting a scholarship to Stanford, went to law school at Yale and did post-graduate work in South America. Her mother credits the program for a big part of her success.

Love Isaac, a junior at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy, wouldn't mind emulating such a record. She said she found out about the program through her school counselor and went through the 10-week training program before being placed as an intern at the Hullverson Law Firm.

There, she said, she did everything from making copies and delivering packages to summarizing case depositions and working on spreadsheets.

"It was simple stuff," she said, "but it helped them because they had bigger stuff they had to handle."

Isaac said the 10-week Saturday morning program was particularly helpful in getting her ready for her time at the law firm, even though she didn't always appreciate the early-morning wakeup call. Sometimes, she said, it would take two alarm clocks plus the most effective alarm of all -- her mother -- to get up in time.

"That was really dedication," she said. "You had to be there at 8:30 in the morning. You don't really want to be there; you want to be in bed sleeping. But I could see the benefits in all the lessons they were teaching us."

Besides learning how to write a resume and being able to practice interview skills -- " I never knew they would ask you those kinds of questions" -- she learned basic techniques like maintaining eye contact and not acting too cocky or overconfident.

"It can make the difference between yes, they would hire you, and no, they wouldn't," Isaac said.

And she liked her blazer, bow tie and khaki skirt.

"When I put that on," she said, "I felt professional."

Companies Wanted

It's not just the interns who benefit from the program. Johnson and Jeff Kaiser of Emerson said the companies get something back from becoming involved.

"A lot of kids just need a chance," Kaiser said. "But they don't come here just to file and make copies. They actually contribute. We have one in our accounts payable group, and she inputs invoices, reconciles the actions and allows our regular staff to go on vacation in the summer."

He said it's gratifying to see how the interns' confidence grows during the time they are in the office.

"The first week they get here," Kaiser said, "they're all kind of shy, but they come out of it very quickly. By the end of the eight weeks they spend with us in the summer, they're just part of the gang.

"We find that the more we give them to do, the more they can do. We just have to trust them."

Kaiser said Emerson remains committed to taking part in the program, but Johnson noted that as the hard economic times drag on, some companies can't even afford to hire regular workers, much less pay interns. The internship program operated at a slight deficit last year, and a youth opportunity tax credit that has helped fund the program is in danger of being cut or eliminated in Jefferson City.

She emphasized that when the interns gain the skills and the background they need to succeed, they are doing more than just helping themselves.

"We are creating more tax-paying citizens," Johnson said. "We want to make sure people know that. The program helps students realize their academic and professional potential, so we want to be able to continue."

Despite tough economic times, Hullverson expects the success of the program's main goal -- moving motivated students from school to college to professional jobs -- will help the program endure.

"I hope it goes on for another 20 years," he said, "and I have no reason not to think it will."

And if it continues, what advice would Isaac have to students who are thinking about applying, despite the effort and commitment and early Saturdays involved?

"I would say do it," she said. "It requires hard work and dedication. But in the end it really pays off, and you will enjoy it. It can help you in so many ways, it is really unbelievable."

Dale Singer began his career in professional journalism in 1969 by talking his way into a summer vacation replacement job at the now-defunct United Press International bureau in St. Louis; he later joined UPI full-time in 1972. Eight years later, he moved to the Post-Dispatch, where for the next 28-plus years he was a business reporter and editor, a Metro reporter specializing in education, assistant editor of the Editorial Page for 10 years and finally news editor of the newspaper's website. In September of 2008, he joined the staff of the Beacon, where he reported primarily on education. In addition to practicing journalism, Dale has been an adjunct professor at University College at Washington U. He and his wife live in west St. Louis County with their spoiled Bichon, Teddy. They have two adult daughters, who have followed them into the word business as a communications manager and a website editor, and three grandchildren. Dale reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2013 to 2016.