Sydney Lara, a senior at Long Beach Poly High School, is passionate about art and computer design. This past summer, she was able to work on projects that allowed her to build on her passion and show her creative side at her internship with Long Beach Unified School District’s Office of Research, Planning, Evaluation and School Improvement.
Sydney stated, “Working for the department was an amazing, eye-opening experience. The office environment was welcoming, friendly, and encouraging. My supervisors and co-workers made it easy for me to participate and helped improve my ideas.” For example, Sydney designed a poster for a new messaging application for the district. She pitched it to her supervisors, and to her surprise, they liked it and encouraged her to keep using her artistic side on other projects. Sydney said, “It was the first time I felt true pride in my work, and it helped me confirm that marketing/graphic design was a career path I wanted to pursue.”
When asked what advice she would give to a student applying for CaLL’s internship program next summer, Sydney stated, “I encourage any student who is interested in an internship to take this great opportunity…have an open mind about the environment and job responsibilities. From participating in this program, I was able to gain vast knowledge, skills, and work experience.”
The Office of Research, Planning, Evaluation and School Improvement manages the student information and data systems, coordinates the district, state and college readiness testing, manages local and state accountability measures, conducts research and evaluation studies and processes requests to do research within the district.
