If you walk into room G02 during seventh period, you’ll see that every desk has a chair placed upside-down on top of it — every desk except for one group, where the four members of WJ’s newest internship sit. Chromebooks and notepads litter the desks as the interns brainstorm, and are replaced with markers, posters and glue as they get closer to a deadline. This collaborative, tightly knit team is this year’s Senior Executive Board, proposed by Senior class President Meley Ghermay with the goal of increasing student representation and boosting school spirit .
Social studies teacher and class of 2025 sponsor Rainer Kulenkampff supported the idea, and worked with internship coordinator Emily Fleisher to implement it.
“If people feel like they’re a part of the community, they’re more likely to be successful within that community,” Kulenkampff said. “They’re more likely to do well, turn in those homework assignments, get those SSL hours done and work towards graduation.”
While individual interns can choose to lead specific projects or events, there are no designated positions.
“One of their grades is kindness,” Kulenkampff said. “I want them to work together well, support each other’s ideas. That’s a grade that’s like 100 points.”
The interns spend much of their time brainstorming ways to increase senior school spirit, and in the future will assist the class officers in planning and executing pep rallies, spirit weeks, homecoming hallways, prom and graduation. Recently, they created green and black shirt-shaped posters encouraging seniors to wear green for the pep rally.
“We put them everywhere throughout the school so that anywhere a senior would turn, they would see a poster,” intern Cristina Simpson said.
While Kulenkampff described the program as a “marketing internship,” it requires and trains a broad range of skills applicable to almost any career. To apply, the interns had to not only provide basic information like GPA and extracurriculars but also write two essays and submit a piece of art.
“Make sure you have a lot of creativity, that you’re organized and that you have extremely good communication,” intern Thailine Romero said, addressing future applicants.
Ghermay said that while the program is still in a very early stage, she’s happy with what has been accomplished so far.
“They’ve been very responsive, they have really great ideas, and they’re really using that seventh period to the max,” Ghermay said. “It can be hard to have something to do each day for a whole class period, but they’re a really great group.”
While some interns voiced concerns about working under tight deadlines, their opinions on the program were overwhelmingly positive.
“I feel like we’re making a difference in the school in regard to school spirit, especially senior school spirit, which I’m proud to be a part of,” Simpson said.
