The Real World: Hastings High School

Despite its carefree and party-hard reputation, senior year of high school can be stressful. The college application process, saying good-bye to old friends, getting acquainted with unfamiliar territories--it's a lot to pile up in a short amount of time. But the soon-to-be graduates of  Hastings High School have had the opportunity to make that transition flow more easily with an internship program that gives them a heads up for the real world.

Now in its third year running, the  internship program requires all 130 seniors to  explore career opportunities they think they will want to pursue after high school or college. Finishing the traditional school year five weeks early, seniors work with local businesses, hospitals, and in some cases, artists, and are required to log in 20 hours per week.

"There's a community service group working with the town's Chamber of Commerce," Michael Mahony, an English teacher and the coordinator of the Senior Alternatives Internship program, said. "We also have two students working with a graphic novelist, a children's book writer, helping her with drawings."

Students are encouraged to find sponsors for a field they wish to work in, but in some cases, students have found ways to be more creative. Two seniors, James Cazzoli and Jeff Nassar, used the program as an opportunity to do something they've always been interested in: designing and selling skateboard decks, the oval plank on which boarders stand.

Working with Mike Mahony as their sponsor while technically acting as their own bosses, the seniors have been meeting four or five hours every day coming up with designs, plans and business models for a brand they've decided to call J2 Skateboarding.

"We have one friend who's Irish and loves the Yankees," Nassar said in explaining one of their deck designs. "So I thought of doing an Irish flag across the deck and putting the Yankee symbol in the middle."

Although based on their own hobby and imagination, the two students have found ways to make their internship more official and business-like, such as selling boards at a reduced price to appeal to more customers and using social networking sites like Facebook to advertise and create support.

"My understanding of how to start and run a business has been greatly enhanced,"Cazzoli  said. "My plan is to major in business in college so this project definitely helped."

Nassar, who will be attending Fordham University next year, also added that the program "opened the business realm" for him and gave him an inside look on how it works, although he's unsure if business is ultimately what he wants to do.

Seniors will give a presentation to their classmates, parents and guests this Friday, demonstrating the work they've accomplished during the last five weeks. This feedback will be used to coordinate and improve upon the program for next year, although this year's has already been described by Mahony as "incredibly positive."

"We have teachers assigned to students who supervise and call sponsors to check on work, and this year we haven't had a single glitch," Mahony said. "Students drop in at the end of the day to say how wonderful the program is."