Yokohama internships give high schoolers valuable experience
GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Internships give students a hands-on experience in a work environment.
They also give employers a chance to size up possible job candidates.
ITIRE is a paid internship offered in the summer by Yokohama.
The program gives high school students an inside look at one of the area’s leading manufacturing plants.
Learning and Development Specialist Regina Peoples said Yokohama wants students to learn what manufacturing offers as a career.
“Manufacturing is not just hands-on working in the plant. We have accounting degrees, HR degrees, and engineering, so it’s not always ‘Oh I’m off in the plant working hard’. We have so much to offer, have safety and different things in that nature,” said Peoples.
Third-year intern George Utz said what he has learned at Yokohama will help him in his career.
“What I did was very related to engineering. I basically worked in an industrial engineering office and since I am going into engineering that experience will be very valuable,” said Utz.
Even if they end up in a different field, the internship can have other benefits.
“First, we really want them to learn a sense of confidence because some of them will come in scared and they are very closed in and so we hope we help them to build confidence so when they go out into the real world they won’t be in fear to shine and we also help them to be better citizens so they can help out in this world,” said Peoples.
First-year intern Kalem Hall said he has grown during his internship.
“When this first started, I looked at this as an internship, but as the days went by it became a lifestyle for me. Nobody wants to get up in the morning and be so talkative but those small obstacles are nothing to get over once you get in a routine, and the opportunities and the doors that this experience will open will forever trump those small obstacles. I have learned dedication and perseverance. I became more extroverted,” said Hall.
Yokohama has been offering the ITIRE internship program since 2022.
