Internship Opportunities

In the summer of her junior year, senior Jenny Tran participated in a stem cell research internship at UCSF. Her interactions with kids from other schools revealed a caliber of students unlike any she’s met before.

Tran is a first-generation American and college student.

“Growing up, my parents didn’t really speak English. I kind of grew up with my brothers raising me. I didn’t get tutoring, since it wasn’t provided at my school and I always needed to be home right away. So if I needed help with school, it was my brothers who would help me.” Tran said.

Tran sought out internships through Mandel and ended up applying and attending a stem cell organization at UCSF. This program is highly prestigious and competitive, pushing Tran to interact with students in both high school and undergraduate school who were used to such an environment.

“Honestly, I got a bit of a culture shock.” Tran said. “Some of [the other students] were doing two internships at once… And most other students came from schools that were in the top ten in the rankings for California… while Arroyo doesn’t even make the rankings.”

She also compared the endless amounts of APs those students would take to the AP cap at AHS. Being surrounded by these types of students intimidated Tran.

“For the majority of the summer, I felt kind

That same summer, senior Jolly Jiang participated in an internship at FACES for the future coalition. He faced the same issues as Tran, going from an underrepresented school with fewer resources to a highly academic environment with students from wealthier schools.

Jiang is a first-generation American, both his parents immigrating from China with less than a middle school education. He grew up in the public school system, him being the driver of his education.

“[My academic life] was really just me doing it myself, and my sister occasionally tutoring me in math. There weren’t many resources out there. It was just going to school and learning whatever they’re teaching there, then going home and doing the homework.” He said.

Nearing the end of his junior year, Jiang felt compelled to find an internship to add to his college transcript. Because he was in the Health and Medicine elective Human Body Systems, Mandel found an internship catered to him. Jiang attended FACES, an internship focused on advocating for public health. For six weeks, Jiang and his peers learned about detecting/ responding to infectious diseases by making posters and presentations, and going on the street to promote proper health measures.

Jiang worked with students coming from school districts including Alameda, Berkeley, and Oakland high schools. He expressed how it of dumb and out of place. Like I couldn’t amount to what [other students] were doing at first, and they just had more experience than I did, especially with the classes they were taking.” was apparent these other students had more of an advantage in the topics they discussed.

Working six hours a day in the lab alongside these kids left Tran lost and exasperated.

“And it was kind of exhausting at first since I kind of felt dumb the whole time. So I was just exhausted and dumb.” She said.

Nonetheless, this frustration of hers dwindled, and Tran began to use the intelligent workspace and the knowledge of her peers to her advantage.

“I gained talking skills. I had to present a lot, and manage my time well. And after I got used to the environment, I got more comfortable talking to more people.” She said.

Tran concluded her internship experience to be one that was both eye-opening and fulfilling. She gained invaluable skills that summer, discovering that although other students were considered more “privileged”, she was able to learn and gain just as much out of the internship.

“I realized that I wasn’t really competing against everyone else. At the end of the day, everyone’s just kind of helping each other.” Tran said.

“In a sense, it seemed like we were less educated than they were,” Jiang said. “Where Arroyo is a smaller school with less teachers, resources and electives to choose from, they have more classes and teachers, a bigger campus, and more resources in general.”

Although Jiang noticed this difference in privilege between AHS students and his internship peers, he didn’t let it get in the way of his experiences at FACES.

“After a little bit, everything clicked, but it was a matter of getting there. Getting to the same point where everyone else was at.” Jiang said.

Alternatively, he found his own strengths.

“With the activities we did, people would always be hesitant of telling others what to do and taking the lead on stuff. I learned how to take that leadership role.” Jiang said.

Jiang hopes for AHS to attain more resources for its students in the form of classes, electives, and teachers. He voiced his gratitude to Mandel for providing him with the internship opportunity and wishes to see more teachers who would do the same for their students.

“If more teachers were to do that, more students would be able to get real life and professional experience to benefit them,” Jiang said.