Summer Internships Put Avon JVS Students on Career Track

Three Avon JVS students were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to get a head start on their career track. This past summer, they completed internships in the culinary arts, welding and masonry, and manufacturing trades.

Out of 75 Lorain County JVS students, Avon students Yasmihng Bradford, Loreatha Randleman and George Tesmer were honored for successfully completing a summer internship on Sept. 21 at the Lorain County JVS.

“The Summer Youth Internship Program is an opportunity available to Lorain County JVS juniors who have successfully completed their first year of career-technical training, and who have superior attendance and strong teacher recommendations,” according to a recent news release. “This experience extends student learning beyond the classroom and provides students with real world work experience. Students also have the opportunity to interact with company employees and mentors and develop a direct pathway to additional education and training or future employment.”

JVS Career Services Specialist Bill Elliott said, “One of the principles behind the Summer Internship Program is to extend the classroom into the world of work. Another important objective is to enhance a student’s prospects for careers in high-skill, competitive-wage jobs, as well as guide students down a path that provides significant opportunity for continued education.”

Yasmihng Bradford

Senior Yasmihng Bradford hopes to open a soup kitchen in Africa someday. This summer, through her internship as a gourmet food specialist at Heinen's, she had the chance to interact and relate to customers.

“My internship gave me the chance to develop my customer service skills and express how I feel about food,” she said. “Usually, when you are behind the scenes in the kitchen, you don't have this customer contact.”

Her job included giving people samples of food and telling them about food preparations and nutritional content of the samples.

“I really enjoyed myself on this job,” she said. “This was something very different for me.”

Bradford plans to attend Lorain County Community College for one year after she graduates, and then transfer to the Culinary Institute of America.

Loreatha Randleman

Kids and welding don't often appear in the same sentence, let alone in the same room. But Loreatha Randleman, a senior in the masonry trade program at JVS, worked with both this past summer at Rosie's Girls Camp at LCCC.

“I helped as an instructor with elementary girls who were learning about alternative energy, welding and carpentry,” she said.

Working with kids was new for Randleman, as was welding and teaching. In the future, she would like to work in the masonry trade and said, “I learned some extra skills, like welding, and about alternative energy, which might be helpful in my future.”

George Tesmer

Senior George Tesmer worked at Tez Tool, a manufacturing business in Lorain County, this past summer. As a precision machine technology student at JVS, Tesmer enjoyed learning “the tricks of the trade, increased speed, new ways of doing things, time management, and product efficiency” at his internship.

But his internship did more than just teach him about his desired trade. “It helped me gain the responsibility of having a 'real' job for the first time,” he said. “It showed me the real world of work.”

He plans to continue working in manufacturing and says he may pursue higher education in the future.