Summer Programs for High School Students
Intel offers two summer programs for McClymonds and Oakland Tech students. Learn more about each program.
“If you are really passionate about engineering and want to gain college experience, this is the program for you.”
Engineering Institute at Georgia Tech
McClymonds and Oakland Tech students spent three weeks at the Summer Engineering Institute at Georgia Tech.
“If you are really passionate about engineering and want to gain college experience, this is the program for you,” said Oakland Tech’s Iman Ali (pictured at right) about her time at the Summer Engineering Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Along with five other students from Tech and McClymonds, Iman spent the three weeks completing engineering projects to solve real-world engineering problems using Arduino, MATLAB, and Google Sketch-up. The kids also got a crash course in the college lifestyle, living in the dorms and attending daily engineering sessions that simulated the rigor of college courses.
“It was great going to Georgia Tech,” reflects McClymonds’ Albert Mitchell. “I was able to learn from different people from across the world and interact with college students and see the life a college student, how they live. I also learned a lot of new things related to engineering. I took a college-level chemistry course that was difficult but I did it. I worked with peers to design a company as our project and it helped us build a bond that we will all remember.”
Back home in the Bay Area, students celebrated their return from Atlanta at a dinner with Richard Taylor, Intel’s Vice President of Human Resources, while Angelo and Albert (pictured together at right) attended the Ed Fund’s gala to share their experience at the Summer Institute.
“From this experience, I can honestly say that I’ve become a better person in a field I really want to be in later in life.”
Internships at Intel
For two summers running, Oakland students have had six-week paid internships at Intel HQ.
For students with a passion for technology, a summer internship at a company like Intel—a paid internship, no less—is pretty much a dream gig. In the summer of 2016, 29 Oakland Tech and McClymonds students lived this dream during a six-week internship at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara. In 2017, the number of interns rose to 41.Over the course of the summer, students immersed themselves in the world of technology, developing organizational and leadership skills that would translate into their academics, professional development, and community engagement. Over the course of the summer, students immersed themselves in the world of technology, designing products that would benefit the Oakland community. They also completed an intensive two-week IESC Maker Experience, using the Arduino programming platform to bring their designs and ideas to life in the form of interactive electronic objects.
“I loved the maker experience because it gave me the freedom to create something to benefit my community,” says Jonas Ong, a senior at Oakland Tech who helped develop Aughtawata, a plant watering system. Other projects included concussion detecting headgear for athletes, a multi-sensored walking stick for the blind and a gesture controlled robot.
The experience culminated in an interactive exhibition at the end of the summer, when interns presented their projects to the Oakland community back at Oakland Tech.
I liked the fact that I actually got a chance to code and make it be useful to others,” says McClymonds Senior Day’Marr Johnson. “From this experience, I can honestly say that I’ve become a better person in a field I really want to be in later in life.”
“This is the best summer experience I’ve had in awhile and if I could do it again, I would do so without hesitation,” says Patrick Ho, senior at Oakland Technical High School. “I learned so much about how a corporate environment works and I feel this will be imperative for my success.”
“At its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions,” says Andy Kim, senior at McClymonds High School. “It is a noble profession.”
To read more reflections on the internship experience, check out “In Their Words,” complete with student quotes and photo portraits by Hasain Rasheed Photography. Also, be sure to check out the videos below.
