Internship provides students with lifelong learning

From Dallas ISD Staff Reports

Investing in health and knowledge of the human body is important for the future, and no one believes this more than Health and Physical Education. This summer, the Health and Physical Education Department and their interns are working to spread knowledge of health throughout Dallas ISD.

“We had a project manager who pitched the idea to our division and all of the departments who were able to participate signed up,” said Lisa Whitaker, director of the Health and Physical Education Department. “It was our first year doing this program and I think that it is a very good opportunity for the kids.”

The student interns assist with various tasks, such as working in the Future Doctors program at Sunset High School and David W. Carter High School, gathering health data and conducting campus observations. 

These observations led to the students’ most recent project: creating first aid kits. The kits will be placed in every physical education classroom, so teachers have what they need to take care of students.

Creating the first aid kits is a main task for the interns during their time at Dallas ISD — their goal is to create 245 kits before the end of the program. 

Toni O., a rising senior at Hillcrest High School, is one of the student interns working on the project.

“I’m helping create first aid kits to bring to schools in the Dallas ISD area,” she said. 

Toni is interested in health because of her time in varsity cheer and was instantly hooked when she saw a P.E. section at a job fair. She also wants to pursue medicine and become a doctor in the future.

Her advice to students interested in an internship is to not give up and follow what they are interested in.

“If you are interested in a certain subject, it will be fun no matter what you are doing,” she said.

Whitaker has nothing but good things to say about Toni and her fellow student interns.

“If you give them a project, they can just execute it without much general observation. They are amazing kids, and it is such a reminder of why we do what we do,” she said.