Bartlesville students use internships to earn graduation credits, connect with local employers
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
District staff and students told the school board that internships now count toward diploma requirements under recent Oklahoma changes, with 65 high‑school interns and about 102 program participants districtwide this year and dozens of local employer partners.
Bartlesville school officials and students told the school board the district’s internship program is giving students hands‑on workplace experience and, under recent changes to Oklahoma graduation requirements, can now count toward diplomas.
The change means students such as Ella Goodwin, who interned daily with Washington County Emergency Management, and Owen May, a senior who did a daily two‑hour internship in Phillips 66’s human resources department, were able to use that time for credit and graduate “on time with a head start,” district staff said.
The internships are intended to give students experience and early career clarity. “Any real world experience you can get while you're young, you're building connections, you're starting that growth earlier on,” one student said in a video shown to the board and attributed to an intern in the program. District staff noted many certification classes that feed into internships are taken through CareerTech partners.
District staff reported there are about 65 interns this year at Bartlesville High School and roughly 102 students participating in the district‑wide program, which includes juniors and seniors; the district also listed about 65 business partners and said 70 students had applied for 40 clinical internship slots at local hospitals for the coming year. Employers named in the presentation included Phillips 66, Ascension Saint John and Jane Phillips Medical Center.
School staff emphasized the benefit to employers as well, calling internships “a working interview” that reduces hiring risk and helps local businesses evaluate and develop potential future employees. Staff said the program aims to retain more graduates in the local workforce, citing smaller communities in Oklahoma that could use similar partnerships.
Board members and staff credited partners such as Tri County Tech and CareerTech for providing certification classes used by interns and noted county emergency management staff had hosted student placements.
The board did not take any formal action on the internship program at the meeting; the presentation was informational and the district asked the board to continue supporting and promoting the program.