Teachers gain real-world experiences to bring back to their students
Posted: May 30, 2024
The Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s teacher externship program is seeking applicants for its summer session.
The program, revived last fall, allows Hawaiʻi educators to gain valuable real-world experience in various fields to bring back to their classrooms.
Details on the exact businesses participating are still being finalized, but will likely include fields such as hospitality, television, health care, and culinary arts.
This past spring break, a pilot cohort of five HSTA members joined 10 other Hawaiʻi State Department of Education teachers to complete a five-day pilot externship at various Outrigger Hospitality Group locations, shadowing hotel staff on jobs like the reception desk, housekeeping, maintenance, human resources, and revenues and sales.
Adrienne Brown, a special education student success manager and coach at DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach public charter school, completed her externship at Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel.
“I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I knew that it would be hands-on and I would see life from a different perspective when it comes to providing for children’s needs, and then going into a whole new world where we were fixated and focused on providing and servicing people for their wants,” Brown said.
The whole experience “just helped me change my mindset from an educator to customer service,” she added.
Participants who meet all the requirements of the externship will receive a $1,000 stipend made possible through a Grant in Aid award to the Hawaiʻi Foundation for Educators, a 501(c)(3) organization that works in partnership with the HSTA to provide Hawaiʻi’s educators with the quality training and professional development they need to support our keiki.
How to apply and key dates
The HSTA is seeking 10–15 teachers for its summer externship, which will run the first through third weeks of July 2024. Some businesses may offer dates that continue into the school year with weekend opportunities.
To be eligible for the $1,000 stipend, all externship participants must commit to an initial Zoom meeting, the externship dates, and a post-externship presentation about their key findings and learnings to the business for which they completed the externship.
- Applications due: June 21, 2024
- Initial Zoom meeting: Early July TBD
- Externship: First three weeks of July
- Presentation to show application of the experience: November TBD