PTECH student Jackson Haverly, who will be working as an intern for IBM this summer, poses with the items IBM sent to get him prepared for the internship.
JOHNSTOWN —This summer, 10 HFM PTECH students will participate in paid internships with IBM, which will help them gain critical professional and technical skills.
Fulton Montgomery Regional Chamber of Commerce Director of Workforce Development Nicole Walrath said she first reached out to IBM after reading an article about IBM’s internship opportunities nearly a year ago. She has since worked closely with IBM and the students in the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES PTECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) program to guide them through the rigorous application process.
“IBM has always been an immense supporter of the PTECH community, but the growth in this collaboration has really opened doors that our PTECH students might not have had otherwise,” Walrath said. “I’m incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication all 10 students have accomplished.”
To be selected, the students must have completed at least their junior year of high school, earned at least 12 college credits, meet a GPA requirement and have completed 8 to 10 hours of IBM training to earn their IBM Professional Skills Badge.
The students selected for IBM’s virtual summer internships include:
- Colby Agerter of Mayfield
- Frank Alvarez of Fonda
- Siew Goh of Johnstown
- Jackson Haverly of Johnstown
- Zakary Kehn of Amsterdam
- Caleb Kobas of Johnstown
- Shain Krutz of Johnstown
- Sebastian Lasher of Gloversville
- Hunter LaCelle of Amsterdam
- Xavier Maldonado of Mayfield
The students, some of whom earned their associate degrees and completed the HFM PTECH program this spring, will also receive a stipend to set up a home office from which they will work about 32 hours a week over six weeks this summer.
“We are thrilled to have these 10 students represent our school at IBM. The internship offers a phenomenal opportunity to gain real-word experience and should serve as an excellent stepping stone for their careers,” HFM PTECH Principal Matt Davis said.
The students from the HFM PTECH program will be among IBM’s nearly 1,000 paid P-TECH interns from 45 schools in Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Texas, and more. The internships are part of IBM’s effort to create more equitable pathways for underserved people to acquire tech and professional skills by supporting a “skills over degrees” approach.
“The traditional pathways into highly skilled jobs are changing for the better, becoming more inclusive and accessible to people from all walks of life,” said Obed Louissaint, IBM senior vice president of Transformation and Culture. “These U.S.-based programs were created to level the playing field, create economic opportunity through skills, and build a technology workforce that resembles the country.”
