Haverhill Uses $131,000 Grant to Support STEM-Focused Internships for High Schoolers

Haverhill K-12 Supervisor of Science and Technology Kevin R. Higginbottom. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Haverhill Public Schools is using a $131,000 state grant to pay for STEM-focused internships for Haverhill High schoolers.

The grant is part of a program launched last April to provide 10,000 high school students with opportunities for paid work experiences in fields built on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Approximately $4 million was awarded to 16 regional workforce boards and 24 career centers, enabling them to pay students directly. Haverhill K-12 Supervisor of Science and Technology Kevin Higginbottom applauded the state grant.

“Thanks to this opportunity, our students will be able to extend the skills and knowledge they have been developing throughout their learning in the HPS K-12 Science and Technology programs. Applying their critical thinking skills to in-the-field applications will prove to be invaluable experiences for this group of interns,” he told WHAV.

Gov. Charlie Baker described the benefits of the program, saying, “This new STEM internship program will give more students across the Commonwealth foundational opportunities to gain meaningful work experience,” Baker said. “Under this program, employers and students will both benefit as the hiring process is streamlined and internships are made more financially feasible for both parties.”

Haverhill Public School Career Technical Education Supervisor Victoria Kelley put Haverhill forward as a candidate for the program after she learned of the recent demand for paid STEM internships. Kelley said the grant provides 70 Haverhill High School students with high quality, paid STEM internships.

The grant is not the first internship-based program to reach Haverhill. In 2010, Haverhill High School created an internship program through the Access 21 After School Program. More than 120 business and organizational partners provide hundreds of Haverhill High students with work-based learning immersion experiences. In the most recent semester, 123 internships were offered to students.

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