Summer interns Upward Bound

Students gain career insights during school break

Sunday, June 10, 2007

By JOHN R. PULLIAM

The Register-Mail

GALESBURG - For many of the thousands of students working summer internships, being on summer vacation during June, July and August does not mean an end to the juggling act necessary during the school year to fit in academics with their other activities. That's certainly true for two Upward Bound students.

Karissa Prather, 17, of Victoria just completed her junior year at ROWVA High School. She will be interning 15 hours each week at the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association, taking Upward Bound classes - through the program at Carl Sandburg College - and working as a part-time cashier at Hy-Vee. Then, she'll fit in about 70 softball games for the ROWVA Rampage and Wataga Bi-County teams.

Prather said she doesn't know a lot about economic development, but she definitely is interested in business.

"This is going to be pretty new," she said. "My mom worked at Maytag and when they left, she was really into the business leaving and how we need new business."

Although Prather, the daughter of Kimberly Gaines and Dennis Prather, hopes to major in accounting at Bradley University, with a minor in business, she chose the GREDA internship over one in accounting because she thought it sounded more interesting.

Prather has been on the honor roll for the past three years and ranks among the top 10 in her class. She is a community volunteer who has worked with the village of Altona's park cleanup and ABC Parish Mission Team during the summer of 2006.

Michelle Smith, GREDA spokeswoman, said both Prather and Jason Reno of Abingdon High School, the other summer intern, impressed officials at the economic development agency.

"They were either on the honor roll or had high test scores," Smith said. "They go through an actual interview process. First of all, they have to have the skill level we need."

Reno, the son of Roger and Deanna Reno, will be a senior at Abingdon High School this fall. He has made honor roll for the past five semesters and is vice president of the Student Council and vice president of the drama club for the next year. He has been in Upward Bound since 2005, and plays for the Abingdon Commandos football team. Reno also is in the high school band and has appeared in several high school musicals. He participates in the United Methodist Church youth praise band and volunteers at Abingdon High School to repair school computers. He also is employed at Hi-Lo in Abingdon.

Reno said he plans to study business in college "and I saw the GREDA internship and was interested in what they did."

He plans to study business administration at either the University of Illinois or Monmouth College.

"I'm possibly going to pursue my doctoral degree," Reno said.

Upward Bound is a federal college-prep program for high school students from families whose parents did not go to college. The program is designed to provide social, cultural and educational experiences. According to Tony Bentley, director of Upward Bound's program at CSC, the program also provides laptops to students, tutoring and offers a work study - or internship program - during the summer, in addition to classes.

Bentley said about 20 of their students will "work 15 hours a week in June, July and August" in career settings different from the typical jobs high school student do.

"We want to go out and find a place they can gain professional experience in a professional field," Bentley said. "It kind of gives the kids the idea of whether this is what they want to do" as a career.

"It's a great opportunity," he added. "They get to make contacts in that field."

Bentley said students are paid $300 per month during the internships.

So far, Reno and Prather have been going through piles of newspapers to clip articles about GREDA and the Chamber of Commerce.

"Now we've been assigned a new project about our hometowns," he said.

The demographic information will be posted on GREDA's revised Web site, which Smith hopes eventually will have information on all Knox County communities.

"We are pleased to have such driven and ambitious students working at GREDA this summer," Linda Utsinger, vice president of business development, said.

"We hope that this will be a great experience for Jason and Karissa and know that they will be a valuable asset to our organization during their time here."

Smith explained GREDA was looking for students with some computer skills.

"Once we've narrowed down the candidates, they have an in-person interview," she said.

Smith said Prather and Reno will be getting many different experiences.

"We work with a lot of data. So we'll have them input data into our database," Smith said.

Smith said GREDA has used Knox College students as interns in the past and probably will again this fall.

"It's great for the students," Smith said of the work study-internship program.

Both students now have a week of the program under their belts, but asked May 31, three days before it began, how she felt, Prather admitted she was experiencing a jumble of emotions.

"I'm a little nervous, because I'm not sure what it will be like, but I'm definitely excited," she said.