The Burlington School District is working to expand its popular “flipped internship” program into summer programming, building towards a summer STEM accelerator program for high school students.
In a school committee meeting recently, Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti explained that computer science teacher Shereen Tyrrell would be transitioning away from classroom teaching towards managing and building the program, bringing experts from local tech companies to mentor students in tech, coding and other STEM fields.
“I want to really take advantage of where we are geographically, with the companies that surround us,” Conti said. “What’s happening is, word’s getting out, districts are hearing about our flipped internship and Shereen, and they’re inviting her to their districts. She’s beginning to coordinate this for other districts. They’re writing her into grants, and we feel like we can write those grants.”
He added he hoped the expanded program would add more opportunities to bring young women and other underrepresented groups into STEM fields.
In the current flipped internship program, students work on individual or small-group projects under the guidance of a teacher and a professional from a tech company in or around Burlington.
“The kids get so much out of it,” Tyrrell said. “Talking to mentors, they learn about life choices, how to manage their time, different things their mentors went through. They get the opportunity to practice networking skills, and now they have somebody in the outside world that they can access when they’re job hunting. We’re really broadening their social capital.”
The expanded model aims to offer a month-long flipped internship experience over the summer, beginning with high school juniors with the hope of expanding if the program goes well.