Teen Internships

FabNewport and PVD Young Makers offer paid internships on a year-round basis. The number of work based learning opportunities are determined by state funding. We have a 3-tiered system for interns as they develop their confidence and expertise. Many of our interns stay with us for multiple years and end up taking on roles with partner organizations.

In 2018, the Teen Intern program began in Providence with PVD Young Makers, in partnership with Community Libraries of Providence (CLP), Providence Public Library (PPL), the City of Providence and other community partners. This paid program provides Providence high school students with opportunities to pursue their creative interests and passions while developing 21^st century workforce skills and work experience within their local communities. Interns explore STEAM and Education pathways, develop essential skills, grow hands-on, technical experience through machine-learning, and share what they learn through mentoring. The interns’ growth is amplified when they assume responsibility for directly delivering STEAM programming to library patrons over the course of this program.

In summer 2022, this robust program expanded to our Newport location. FabNewport now offers an in-person teen internship encouraging students to pursue their passions and put their problem solving skills to action in our community. In this work-based learning course, students will explore a variety of interest-based career pathways including but not limited to: STEAM, Education, and careers associated with the Blue Economy. For the school year programming interns continue to develop their 21st century skills with on-going and deeper iterations of supported work experiences.  Senior/returning interns will be placed as interns in programming with trusted community partners (ex: Norman Bird Sanctuary, Gnome Surf, Martin Luther King Center (Npt), etc) to ensure continued personal and professional growth and a robust experience.

Regardless of location, the short and long term goals are the same:

Short-term goals: Expose learners to STEAM, Education, Design, Manufacturing and Blue Economy based skills, career pathways and develop critical, 21st century, career skills through civic-project engagement.

21st Century Skills developed:

• 21st Century Skills developed:
  • Communication (written and oral):
  • Time Management & Accountability
  • Teambuilding
  • Community Engagement
  • Entrepreneurial, Self-Driven Projects
  • Engagement in Learning/Skill-Building in areas of:
    • Fabrication
    • Engineering & Design
    • Education – teaching
    • Entrepreneurship
    • At least 2 Makerspace Tools and/or power tools

Long-term Goals: PVD Young Makers measures its long-term impact through the Foundations for Youth Success Framework  developed by University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research. This research highlights 3 key areas (agency, integrated identity and competencies) we use to guide outcome focus for all our programming:

• Agency – the belief that you are an active participant in your future and have control over your life. This mindset is developed through promoting student choice and voice as well as supporting the development of personalized learning pathways.
• Integrated Identity – the understanding of who you are and where you fit in. This will be illustrated through the development of a personalized Positive Future Vision and the work each intern does throughout the community connection to mentors to explore other parts of their community and/or areas of interest.
• Competency – the specific hard and soft skills developed towards subject matter mastery. Programming meets these goals through the portfolios created in alignment with our Pathways, Standards & Micro-Credentials.