Native Academy Activities

Twin Cities area business partners aquaint themselves with Native Academy Interns for the mentorship program.

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The 2001 Tech Interns project

The 2001 Tech Interns project has exploded to work with over 40 interns this summer at MIGIZI. We have steadily increased our participation over the past five years and have almost doubled our size this summer. The Native Academy of MIGIZI Communications began the Tech Interns project in 1996 working with two students being trained to create web sites. MIGIZI hires high school students to complete a curriculum involving students in 300 hours technology, applications and web design training and offers an opportunity to advance further to the level of Senior Intern. Senior Interns work in teams to manage the training segment and track progress for their groups that consist of five or six junior tech interns (first year interns). This summer we have implemented a new level of intern, the “Super Senior Intern (SSI).” These SSIs have completed a minimum of 600 hours of software, hardware and networking training, worked as Senior Interns for at least one year and have completed an individual technology project that is a part of their digital portfolio.

The Super Senior Interns supervise the senior interns and maintain the momentum of the junior interns by providing an additional level of support. All tech interns who completed their training by the end of the summer, receive awards of achievement at a celebration, held this year on August 23. Students showcase their technology skills and completed projects in a multi-media presentation to family, friends, co-workers and other supporters of the project. In the fall, junior interns are accepted for senior internship training for the following nine months. They complete additional leadership, management, computer networking and maintenance training, and identify a personal technology project in order to become Senior Interns. For some tech interns, involvement in the internship program has segued into participation into other technology, science, and math programs, computer courses at school, and employment in technology fields. Senior tech interns, as they continue their work with the Native Academy, have added computer training to their slate of courses at their high schools and for some, courses at the college-level.

Training has comprised of Visual Basic scripting, C++, CISCO certification, networking, keyboarding, video production, CAD, UNIX system administration, Windows (platform, general), word processing, PowerPoint, spreadsheets, basic database design, HTML, Javascript, page layout (for school newsletters and other publications), and more. Through their training, interns have improved on their ability to transfer skills to learning other software applications. Use of an application such as Adobe Photoshop, that is a standard in the design and imaging production industries, along with their newly learned skills, interns have provided training and technical assistance to family members and fellow students in learning office suites, graphic applications, and other software packages. Additionally, tech interns have influenced their families’ budgets in the purchases of computer hardware and software.

The tech intern has become their family’s “computer support technician” and has provided installation and maintenance services, troubleshooting, training, and the knowledge to seek out technical assistance and other resources. The support of the interns families, foundations, corporate sponsors and the community have been instrumental in the success of the Tech Interns Project. We thank you all for your continued support and welcome additional contributions to help us in continuing this project.

For more information about the Tech Interns and samples of intern work, contact us.