Becoming an ASP Intern

By MEG JONES
  
For the 2010 session of the Advanced Studies Program (ASP), thirty-eight interns were hired to assist in the classrooms, dorms and athletic fields at St. Paul’s School (SPS). Twenty-one of the thirty-eight interns this year are ASP alumni and four of them are returning interns from last year.

The competition to be an ASP intern is fierce. Last year, there were thirty-nine interns that were chosen from a pool of 175 applicants. ASP Director Michael Ricard personally hires all of the interns.

“[A good intern is] someone of high character who genuinely cares about others- someone willing to sacrifice their personal life [to be at ASP],” said Mr. Ricard.

Mr. Ricard expressed that though it is good to have experienced interns, this opportunity is just as great for the students as it is for the interns. The internship at the ASP represents an excellent teaching experience for those considering a career in education.






The ASP internship also stands as a prerequisite for the St. Paul’s School Teaching Fellowship program during the normal school year. This August, two interns will transition from their time as ASP interns to work as Teaching Fellows; Studio Arts intern Elissa Rodman will spend this year teaching in the SPS Arts Division, while Advanced Mathematics intern Shylock Baloyi will serve as an instructor in the Math Division.

While some interns have pre-existing connections with either the ASP or SPS, some come to the program without any familiarity with the institutions. Ginger Tsai, an intern from Atlanta, Georgia, Googled “teaching internships” and found the ASP program. Her searches attested to the fact that the ASP internship is widely known and respected. Ms. Tsai is now interning in Introduction to Chinese and her interest for teaching is growing daily.

Brendan Cohen, currently the North House Supervisor, has been a student, intern, and teacher in the ASP. In 2000, Mr. Cohen participated as a student at the ASP, despite his initial hesitations.

“I actually didn't want to do ASP when I first heard about it,” said Mr. Cohen.

Then, in 2004 and 2005, Mr. Cohen was an intern in the Astronomy class. From 2006-2009, he taught the Astronomy class. This year, Mr. Cohen is supervising North House and technically an “intern” again in the Astronomy class.

Mr. Cohen said the most difficult thing about being a teacher was the challenge of how “to get the interns into the teaching process.” On the other hand, the most difficult part about being an intern was “finding the balance of being friends with students but still be an authority figure.”

Intern positions are popular for ASP alumni, even those not necessarily interested in teaching. Caitie Cotton was a pre-med student at NYU but, after interning in Writing Workshop last year, has decided she will pursue teaching this fall. All this comes after Ms. Cotton was an ASP student in The Quest in 2005. She even valued her ASP intern experience enough to return this year, as an intern in the International Terrorism class.

“[Interns] are in this really weird place between students and teachers,” said Ms. Cotton. “Interns do everything the students do and everything the teachers do.”

The perfect intern would be “someone who's into doing trust falls- you can't have someone who takes themselves too seriously,” said Ancient Greece intern Raquel Begleiter.

“[The perfect intern] is enthusiastic, selfless, passionate, compassionate, empathetic, wicked smaht, has a good sense of humor, and has the ability to withstand one-hundred-fifteen degree heat in the New Space,” said Writing Workshop intern Morgan Harris.

“He's the guy that becomes a friend and not like an advisor,” said student Nick Sullivan from Foster.

Macy Day from Ford described the perfect intern as “serious” but “funny”- they “would be willing to learn about me.”

“The perfect intern would always keep a positive attitude and seek to be helpful to the students in the classroom and also in their general needs at ASP,” said Ecology intern Reed Loy.