By Callaghan Barrett
RED BANK – Some students at Red Bank Catholic do their best learning not in the classroom sitting at desks but in emergency rooms, courtrooms and engineering labs.
The RBC Internship Program, which started over 10 years ago, is a unique opportunity for students to get their first taste of the professional workforce at only 16 and 17 years old.
The program sends juniors and seniors all over Monmouth County to work with companies eager to introduce students to potential careers. RBC connects with these companies in many ways, mostly through the RBC alumni community.
“Our family and friends at Red Bank Catholic have really been helpful,” explained Kathleen Booth, head of the program. “The companies usually have a connection to RBC, whether family friends, past students or family members.”
Offered internships come in all shapes and sizes in many different fields of study, including physical therapy, law and law enforcement, mental health counseling, interior design, medicine, journalism and more at companies like KEP Engineering, Riverview Medical Center, Garmany, private law firms and medical clinics and even The Two River Times.
“It’s so rewarding because it is a win-win,” Booth said. “The students really do help them, and the mentors help our kids walk away with so many lifelong lessons.”
One of the most popular internship placements is with Kessler-Ellis Products in Eatontown. Ted Bielenda, the company’s chief technology officer, has welcomed over 10 students each year to intern at the engineering firm. Two seniors, Vincent Mingalone and William DeJulius, who will be studying engineering at Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame, respectively, next year, described their time in the program.
“While I was there, I helped in the warehouse. We got to work with circuit boards and learned how to put them together and put solder masks on them. It was really cool,” Dejulius said.
“It was interesting because there was this feeling like there were actual consequences if I messed up, and people would be let down. There were stakes I’ve never had in my classes. I couldn’t mess around there; I had to work for the whole team,” said Mingalone.
Isabelle Akunwafor, an RBC senior who will be studying neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University this fall, used the internship program to see if neuroscience was really what she wanted to do. “You never really know what a field looks like until you’re actually there,” she said.
“Especially in the medical field, I wanted to be prepared for what was to come before I committed to a profession that I didn’t like.”
She explored her uncertainty at the New Jersey Brain and Spine Center in Shrewsbury under Bruce Rosenblum, M.D. During her four hours every Tuesday for six weeks, Akunwafor shadowed the doctor, seeing patients, looking at X-rays, analyzing MRI and CT scans, taking notes, and going into the consultation rooms.
“I saw what an average day was like for a neurosurgeon outside of the operation room,” she said. “I saw how to apply what I was learning in the classroom on a patient-to-patient basis.” This unique experience confirmed and grew Isabelle’s interest in neuroscience and solidified her desire to study it in college.
Although many companies are eager to participate in the program, internships are more challenging in some fields. It has been difficult for Booth to place students interested in mental health counseling, for example, because of the importance of preserving client confidentiality. Nonetheless, RBC faculty do their best to find ways around these issues, like offering positions in the office and front desk areas, which allow students to meet clients without disrupting private counseling sessions.
“The program is so important because it gives students real-life communication and leadership skills (and) also just professionalism in how they speak, act and treat people,” Booth said. “They get to see how to work together as a team while growing individually.”
The program aims to show students a world of possibilities as they continue their studies and enter the professional world. Together, Red Bank Catholic and its professional collaborators work to empower and inspire the leaders of tomorrow.
Callaghan Barrett is part of the Red Bank Catholic Internship Program and this year’s Two River Times intern. She will be attending the University of Colorado Boulder to study journalism in the fall.
The article originally appeared in the May 16 – May 22, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
