Internships Raise Confidence, Open Doors to Opportunities

Olivia Moretto works in the criminal justice field. In high school, that was always her goal. She took her first step by job shadowing with the Marietta Police Department, where she rode with an officer. Her job shadowing experience taught her that while she wanted to work with law enforcement, she didn’t want to be behind a desk from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Next, with the guidance of a friend and fellow intern, she accepted an internship with the Operator Training Committee of Ohio (OTCO) working with water and wastewater mapping.

Olivia was a rising senior at Frontier High School in the summer of 2019. She also became a paid intern with OTCO at that time thanks to a partnership with BB2C. While OTCO is based in Columbus, OH, they had a satellite office in BB2C’s Small Business Incubator at the time. The satellite office provided an opportunity for high school students through flexible, remote internships.

Olivia was onboarded by another intern and had the opportunity to onboard a future intern during her time with the company. The interns uploaded old maps from municipalities to update information concerning the location of valves, manholes, storm drains, and other aspects of the wastewater system. She had a positive internship experience and credits her fellow interns as well as her supervisor, Curtis Trust, Jr. Executive Director of OTCO, for being very helpful and always willing to answer questions.

Even though this type of work wasn’t exactly in-line with Olivia’s long-term goals, it did allow her to work in the public sector. And it taught her invaluable skills including communication, organization, and time-management. It also helped her “get out of her shell” and gave her a chance to present to a group about the work she was doing.

While her OTCO internship ended in March of 2020 due to COVID, that wasn’t the end of Olivia’s experience with internships. A practicum at Washington State Community College (WSCC) allowed her to work with the Pleasant’s County, WV, Sheriff’s Office. Because of the confidence she gained through her OTCO internship, she felt comfortable reaching out to the Sheriff’s office directly and was able to secure another internship with them from August through November of 2020. She followed-up with the Sheriff’s Office in January of 2021 when she saw they were hiring an entry-level position. She was hired on as a court security office and bailiff. She also graduated from WSSS in 2021. Moving forward, she plans to apply to become a K-9 officer working in narcotics or bomb detection.

When reflecting on her job shadowing and internship experiences and how they helped her with her career pathway, she had a few key words of advice for other students:

Job shadowing helps you not waste time; you can figure out what you want to do in advance. Internships go ever deeper. They are opportunities to figure out where you want to go, get your hands dirty, learn about the company and what they do, and figure out what you want to do. Take your internships seriously and get the job done. Your reputation, connections, and experience matter. It can help you move up.

If you'd like to know more about job shadowing and internship opportunities through BB2C, contact Hunter Warsinsky, Placement Coordinator, at hwarsinsky@BB2Careers.org.