Students Talk About Their WISE

Compiled by Melanie Erspamer

Rebecca Shapiro, Museum of Science Volunteer:

“WISE is awesome and everyone should take advantage of it if they can. I mean it’s really fun, and it’s never too boring because I work in the discovery center with the little kids so when it’s quiet in the area I get to do the experiments and stuff on my own. So yeah, it’s really rewarding and I’m learning how to teach kids and communicate with them and their parents which is something I was sort of awful at for a long time because I never knew how to talk to people. But now it’s getting easier! So yeah it’s great most of the time, but it requires a lot of energy which I sometimes don’t have. But I’m going to do it through the summer because it’s a four-month commitment so I’ll probably have more energy then since school will be over. But basically yeah it’s great and I’m lucky.”

Sam Houston-Read, Create a Food Blog:

“It was a great experience; I was able to do a project relating to something I was interested in and learned a lot about blogging and persuasive writing as well as how to use technology.”

Houston-Read’s blog: samhrdining.blogspot.com

Charles Miller, Internship at Newton Police Detective Bureau:

“It’s fun. [It’s] much better then school; I think everyone should do it because it’s different than school. I learned that being a cop would be a fun and rewarding job.”

Juliana Dragat, Internship in a 5^th Grade Classroom:

“I can definitely say I learned about accepting success and failures and using both to try again. I learned a lot about being patient and that if something isn’t going as planned try a different approach. I learned a lot about working with all kinds of people and this is definitely something I would recommend people do!”

Karina Alfisher, Business Internship at Koko Fit Club:

“Overall I would absolutely recommend the WISE program to every senior next year. Yes, there is the aspect of dropping classes which is always nice to lighten your school
work, after 4 long years, but wise is such an amazing opportunity. For me specifically, I know I wanted to go into some area of business. So to be able to
go to a real small business every day and get a sense of how it runs was very helpful. My business internship was at Koko Fit Club so I was able to gain knowledge about how franchises work and about how to deal with customers in certain situations. I was also asked to help market for their fundraiser that they were holding a few weeks ago, to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Before college especially, it was such a great opportunity to further my work experience, and add a legitimate internship to my resume!”

Ben Snyder, Internship at Zervas Elementary:

“It was dope, a really good way to finish off high school.”

Alex Levy, Theatre Internship:

“I thought WISE was a really cool way of doing something for your own education. A lot of people may use it just as a way to get out of class, but you might as well better yourself using that time. It can be an awesome way to explore a certain field you love. For me, I got the chance to see theatre from the production and marketing perspective, which I didn’t really have experience with. It definitely is important to see theatre from every angle.”

Stewart Ostrow, Internship at Williams Elementary:

“I earned a new sense of responsibility from having the freedom of an Internship through WISE.”

Brian Spink, Internship at Newton Police Department:

“I worked with the K9 unit for the newton police. Yeah, I love doing it. I get to lay down tracks for the dog to come and find me through the woods and everything.

“That is one of the officers demonstrating what the dog would do if the person was not doing what they were told:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-v2bEvMTU

Zach Eagle, Stock Market Analysis Project:

“It gave me the chance to take a step back from school work and focus on a subject that isn’t exactly taught in a classroom but has always interested me. I’m glad I participated in the WISE program and would encourage others to do so as well.”

Jason Karys, Internship in Athletics :

“This project gave me a chance to learn in a different way. After years of learning in a class room, you end up just going through the motions and doing the work for a grade. You do not get the learning experience that school is supposed to provide. With this project I was able to go out into my community and in a field that I’m interested in and try to make a difference. More specifically I made a movie documenting kids’ experience in the local basketball league and interned for our athletic director.”

Wei Chen, Internship at Keyes Pharmacy:

“I worked at a pharmacy store one day a week. Basically I was working with the manager [the] first few days, to get to know the front of the store and how things are put in place. I was taught how to use their computer to organize and update their products and serve customers at a cashier. I have also looked through many kinds of medicines, and learned about differences between a brand name and a genetic name. Last week my sponsor offered me this project: to count the pills. It does look really easy, but when I was doing it, it’s like killing my eyes and brain cells. It is simple to do but requires a lot of focus; I got distracted several times and had to recount them again. Sometimes I had to count few hundreds at a time; my eyes [were] really tired. That’s what I have done these days: it doesn’t seem like I have learned a lot in only 4 days, but I learned something is always better than nothing. They have taught me the basic.”

Jenny Morris, Reading Project:

“I think WISE is a lot of fun and a great experience to try something new if you didn’t have the time before. It was more work than I expected it to be but it was a lot of fun. I read four books from the AP Lit curriculum, then wrote a review of one and made a journal and blog about the others.”

Asthon Andrews, Business Internship at YMCA:

“I learned what career path I want to head down. I also learned that the business world expects a lot more from you than school does. There are so many less things you can get away with and the smallest mistakes can actually lead to something big.”

Guya Tuval, Internship at TJX

“So I’m interning at TJX in Framingham which is the corporate headquarters of TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. I definitely learned about about the business world. I enjoyed working with different parts of the company.”

Kyra Visnick, Photography Project:

“Doing a WISE project was one of the best decisions I made senior year. It allowed me the time to focus on learning a skill that I will use for the rest of my life: photography. Throughout fourth term, I took part of my school day to learn how to manually control the functions of my camera including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focusing the lens. Between school work, sports, and other activities of high school, students often do not have time to engage in new or favorite hobbies or develop out-of-school skills; with the WISE program, students are allotted time to engage in hobbies and develop skills not normally fully developed in core classes. Not only did I learn a lot about photography, but I also had so much fun capturing picture images of the last few weeks of senior year.”

Photo blog: kvwise.tumblr.com

Kyra’s favorites

Lily Ramin (with Rena Heras), Pottery for Pets:

“The WISE program was a great way to end my senior year. My friend Rena Heras and I created a project called “Pottery For Pets” to make and sell ceramic bowls, and donate all of the proceeds to the Animal Rescue League of Boston. Ms. S-J’s wheel throwing class and a potter who volunteered helped us out a lot with the project by making us a lot of bowls. We sold them for $15 each, and ended up raising several hundred dollars for the ARL Boston. From the project I learned a lot about running an operation with many different parts, but more importantly, I saw that giving back in a meaningful way is very possible and rewarding when you set your mind to it.

From top to bottom: Ramin and Heras selling their bowls at Waban Village Day; one of their bowls; a dog named Highway at the Dedham Animal Shelter

Amreen Qaiyum, Internship in Business at the YMCA:

“The internship was a great learning experience; I got an insight of Information Technology, had the chance to do hands on projects and how it felt being in a work-oriented environment. This internship has made me a much more confident person than I used to be. I feel more comfortable talking to people and expressing my views and ideas. Interning at the Y has helped me learn more about myself and explore my working skills. I took my internship really seriously and always challenged myself and got all my work done on time. I went to the Y knowing nothing about IT: now I have a brief idea about what IT is and how it works and how business and IT are related. Moreover, I got some really valuable advice from my boss: she was a great motivation and an inspiration, and I’m really glad to have met such an awesome person like her. All these will come in handy when I go off to college and I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to do such an internship.”

Jane Seewer, Project- Big Sister Program:

“I organized a project which I will carry out in Switzerland (my home, I’m here just for a year)
I did “big sister Boston:” [a] similar thing. Well the actual “working” with the kids will start in the fall when I’m back. Now I did all the preparation it needed to start the non-profit. Like law, insurance, security and sponsor stuff.”

Link to website: www.2copains.ch

Jonathan Stricker (with Maggie Whalen), Photography Project :

“My project was a ton of fun because it broke me out of my comfort zone in term of talking to strangers, and it also allowed me to skip school and take photos which was superb.”

Instagram: pastselfonesentence

Ben Eisenberg, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness:

““Life” was about learning Hebrew; “Liberty” was about my excursions to Walden Pond and documenting flora; “The Pursuit of Happiness” was about rekindling my family’s tradition of professional baking.”

Life:

Liberty:

Pursuit of Happiness:

Sean DiMarco, Writing Project:

“It was a great opportunity to be an independent thinker, and to remain interested academically at the end of senior year. I worked on my screen writing; I didn’t have time to do a full script.”

Sarah Rabinowitz, Writing Project:

“The biggest thing that I learned from my project was about time management. I was given a large, open-ended project, and I was in charge of structuring my own work schedule. Although it was difficult at first, I think that I gained valuable skills that I will be able to take with me to college next year.”

Francesca Sands (with Charlotte Levine, Elena Ramos, and Abigail Coleman), Hiking Project:

“I got two things out of the project. One is that working in a team is no easy task. Relationships get strained and you have to be able to work things out. You have to be able to lead and assert your own personal concerns and opinions but also be a team player who’s willing to sacrifice and compromise.
The other thing I got out of the project was the idea of trying new things. As I move on to college, it is crucial that I try new things to make the most out of my four years. The WISE program was an excellent opportunity for me to practice trying something new and stepping outside my comfort zone (I had never been backpacking before). Even though I may not have loved the new things I tried, I wouldn’t take back the experience. The important part is that I tried it.”

From top to bottom: Elena Ramos and Abby Coleman; a view from the hike; Elena Ramos

Peter Block (with Paul Vasiloff), Building a Garden:

“I gained a lot from working on my WISE project, such as the importance of research, teamwork, and most importantly friendship.”

Alanna Milshtein, Marketing Internship:

“So for my WISE project I interned at a restaurant called Hops N’ Scotch on Beacon Street in Brookline. When I first started the internship I solely wanted to focus on marketing and nothing else. But working alongside one of the two owners, David Ng, taught me about many different aspects of business. I was able to not only help with the marketing of the restaurant but accounting, and also basic tasks like helping the part-timers clean. They also own a liquor store two stores down that I also got to help with. I learned a lot about myself during my internship. I will be attending Suffolk University in the fall and I wanted to major in Marketing but now I will be focusing my studies on Business Management. I think this will be a lot better for me because I will be able to learn about all the different parts of business rather than focus on one. What I liked a lot about interning for WISE was that I felt very independent. It was my responsibility to arrive at work on time and complete my blogs and interviews. If I was not on top of my game, I would have to return to my classes and then make up all the work I missed. I am sad that the internship is over because it was a lot of fun and the people I worked with were awesome. Also, David was such an amazing boss and I could not have asked for a more fun and caring boss. He genuinely wants to get to know his employees and be their friend.”

Jenny Olins, Baking Bread/Photography Project:

“At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t planning on doing WISE, but then I signed up for too many classes, and WISE looked more appealing. But, I didn’t just sign up for WISE to drop classes– I was genuinely interested in and excited about my project– my full schedule just pushed me in the direction of WISE. I’m really glad I participated in the program. I dubbed my project “A Photo-culinary Exploration” as I was exploring both cooking and photography. I bake a lot, but had never baked bread, so I wanted to learn. I’ve also taken photo every year at South, but haven’t shot much still life, so I wanted to try that as well. My project involved baking different kinds of breads and yeasted cakes and then taking film photos of what I baked. I’d say I learned more about baking bread than I did about photography, but I enjoyed both parts of my project. My favorite moment of my project was when I ate the first cinnamon bun I made because it was awesome, and now I know how to make awesome cinnamon buns. I was also pleased when I finished my portfolio as it is thoroughly satisfying to have a portfolio of photos of things you’ve baked; you get to build the subject and process it again later. I’d recommend WISE to every junior.”

Reina Chan, Accounting Internship:

“I really like the experience of my internship. My internship is at Spring Consulting Group accounting department. I learned a lot from this internship: for example, how is it feel as an accountant, how an office looks like and the environment of the office. After this WISE internship?I think I am sure that I want to take accounting as my major and my job. I encourage students in our school to join this program and get different experiences.”

Erin Katzeff, Fitness/Nutrition Project:

“Basically I trained for the Achilles International 10K road race in central park on June 30th. You can look up the foundation but it was started for paraplegics to have a place to exercise with other people in the same situations and eventually go on to run marathons. The mission is to give a sense of hope and accomplishments to people with disabilities. They have since started a club for Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans as well. I’m not a runner by any means; I have avoided it all my life but for a great cause like this, I decided that I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself. I started training using the “Couch to 5K” app on my iPhone and have since been running everyday and dieting. I think I’ll be more than ready when it gets to be race time on the 30th. As of now I run everyday with my mom and I’m really excited!”

Yulia Suvorova, Fashion Project:

“Basically I had a project which was to go to Arlekin studio, to get inspired by the play: red riding hood and create fashion sketches for the costumes and I had an internship at Winding River Reversible jackets where I helped out by diversifying their production (when I came in they had only jackets out of reversible fabric they are making abroad, and now they are adding reversible pillow cases and they loved my clutch, so they might add that to their collection as well). I am continuing this as a summer part-time job because we (Maria Reisman and I) loved working together.

Her clutch: