 |
Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is expanding its partnership with nonprofit District C to expand its work-based learning internship program to accommodate almost twice as many students from the previous year.
The internship program operated by District C is called Teamship. High school students spend weeks working in teams to pitch a solution to a problem presented by one of Teamship’s participating businesses. Local, regional, and national organizations who have real problems within their company for the students to work on engage as business partners for the program. Teamship’s goal is to offer immersive, hands-on experiences.
Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
The Wake County Public School System used a portion of their COVID-relief funds in summer 2022 to serve 22 students participating in the program. After seeing its success, District C’s Director of Programs Ben Laptad said that the district continues to dedicate funds toward it.
“District C’s Teamship program has proven time and again to be a powerful work-based learning model for Wake County students,” Jo Anne Honeycutt, CTE director for WCPSS, said. “It is a natural fit in the CTE space, strategically helping students build durable skills–like teamwork and problem-solving–that they need for any future career.”
In 2023, 125 students participated in Teamship, almost five times as many compared to 2022’s cohort, per the press release. The program had 168 participants in 2024 and they are now shooting to host 300 students in 2025.
“To accommodate almost twice as many students, District C will recruit almost twice as many business partners to provide real problems to students and recruit almost twice as many educators from our pool of District C Certified teachers,” Laptad said.
Instead of hosting the program during one week of the summer, District C said that they will host the program during three different times.
“While increasing complexity logistically, this will provide more access to students who may have had schedule conflicts in a singular week,” Laptad said.
Faryal Ahmed, owner of the local business Chai Street & Co., said this was an opportunity they wished they had in high school. The Raleigh-based tea shop participated in the 2024 Teamship session. After the experience, Ahmed hired one of the students as an intern.
“It gives the students confidence and insight into what career paths are out there. This experience was incredibly rewarding and brought me so much joy,” Ahmed said.
Latest news on District C
“To be successful in an economy reshaped by automation and AI, yes — students will need technical skills. But even more important, they will need to be great at the things that make them uniquely human,” Dan Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of District C said. “Communication, creativity, teamwork, an ability to persevere in the face of novel challenges — these are the human skills students develop through Teamship. We’re so grateful for the chance to do this work in partnership with the team at WCPSS.”
District C is still in the process of finalizing details about the application process. They will have multiple rounds of recruitment so that there are several opportunities for students to apply, Katie Sollenberger, programs specialist, said. Sollenberger also said that offering the program more than once over the summer will also offer more opportunities for all students.
