In April, the Seniors of Tampa Prep will leave school and begin to attend internships of their own choosing. While the seniors have a long time to find and choose their internships, the process of securing an internship is difficult for many. 

   The internships can be from a variety of professional fields and interests as long as the students meet the required stipulations.

   “They [students] cannot intern with their parents and they can’t get paid,” director of senior internships, Kristy Steel said. 

    Along with the stipulations on the types of internships, the seniors must work a total of seventy hours. And the seniors are not required to go to their internships every day. Although seventy hours are the standard, students who are taking AP classes may deduct 10 hours from their time for every AP they take. 

   When asked why seniors are required to have internships for the last three weeks of the school year, Steel said, “[O]ur main reason is because we want them to learn how to go into the real world and look for a ‘job’.”

   While finding an internship in itself may seem easy, the main hurdle seniors run into is finding something they are interested in. 

   Some seniors who are enrolled in concentrations such as the Stem concentration, Humanities concentration, Global Studies concentration and Arts concentration, may want to stay within the bounds of their concentration’s focus. 

   “The only ones that have a requirement are if they are in the STEM concentration,” Steel said. This requirement is that they must take an internship which is STEM related. 

   But never fear, the range of possible internships is endless. According to Steel, seniors have had internships at tattoo parlors and others have watched brain surgery. Seniors have an interesting and diverse road ahead of them as they search for their internships, but have many resources to help them navigate their way.