AGAWAM — Students at Agawam High School have long been involved with internships, gaining experience at local businesses to help them choose a career.

Now two of their teachers have taken advantage of a similar extracurricular program, completing 50-hour “externships.”

Over the summer, manufacturing teacher Christophe Huestis and information technology teacher Matt Stinson worked at local companies through a partnership with the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board.

For each externship, the teachers were assigned a mentor. Huestis’ mentor was Sean Collins, president of Governors America Corp., an electronics manufacturer in Agawam.

Collins told Reminder Publishing that this externship was sponsored by Fitchburg State University. According to their project description, “If participating teachers complete an externship experience and are exposed to the workplace, then they will be able to identify new and emerging best pedagogical processes, practices, and technologies to ensure more rigor and relevance in their program curricula and instructional teaching methods.”

For the past four years, Collins has been working with Agawam High School to expose students to manufacturing and involve it in their curriculum.

Collins said his work at the high school led to him being contacted about Huestis completing a teacher externship program at Governors America Corp.

Before the externship began, Collins developed a schedule with Huestis. The schedule included visiting all stations throughout the company, allowing for time in quality manufacturing, engineering, and so on.

“[We] had three plus weeks to give him a breadth of opportunity and expose him to what we could offer the school and students,” said Collins. “Christophe had exposure to every area in the company to be well-versed.” In addition, Huestis was able to work closely with all staff members.

Throughout the externship, Collins said he pointed Huestis in the right direction and had “global discussions” with him. He added, “Christophe is a great high school teacher. He’s really relatable and was so interested in how a manufacturing facility worked.” He described Huestis as a “sponge” due to his ability to learn quickly and make intelligent observations. “It was great to have him.”

Governors America Corp. offers internships with local colleges, but this was Collins’ first time ever doing an externship with a high school teacher.

Following the externship completion, Huestis was able to take what he learned and apply it in the classroom. About a month ago, Huestis and Collins presented a “problem” to Huestis’ math students. Collins said the students are responsible for looking at a fixture and solving the problem.

Huestis said the point is to begin educating Agawam students about manufacturing and trade skills before they leave high school. He said he’d like to see everyone enter higher education, but it’s useful to know about the alternatives.

“They have another option if they’re not going to enter college,” he s aid.

Collins said Huestis has “worked hard” to incorporate manufacturing into his teaching. Through this dedication, Collins said that students have been “ramping up” their interest in the field.

Collins said this project with the students will continue throughout the year. Providing them with “real-life problems” and addressing the issue will assist in their overall learning, he added.

Stinson’s mentor for his externship was Lisa Duncan, director of client support at Paragus, an information services provider in Hadley. She said that Paragus has clients from northern Connecticut to Attleboro, though most of their customers are within 90 minutes of Hadley.

Duncan described Paragus as “unique” in the way they serve to their customers. The company offers day-to-day support and works to make sure that their systems run properly.

“We try not to be the typical IT company. We value our customer relationships,” said Duncan.

Duncan went on to say that Stinson reached out to Paragus and asked if he would be able to complete an externship. As Paragus often offers internships to people switching to their field of work, they did not hesitate when it came to a professional educator, said Duncan.

Throughout the four weeks Stinson was with Paragus, he worked on a variety of different projects.

Duncan explained that as she’s in charge of client support, she answers the call whenever clients have an issue with their devices. To assist in Stinson’s learning, Duncan talked with him about building and repairing computers.

For instance, during Stinson’s externship, Duncan said they had a few computers that she knew were not working properly. Some of those issues included the inability to connect to the Internet, along with various levels of hardware troubleshooting.

“I let him [Stinson] take the time to figure out the problem,” said Duncan.

In addition, Paragus received brand-new PCs that Stinson was able to help set up for clients. He even had the opportunity to go on site with one of Duncan’s techs. During his downtime, Duncan said Stinson was able to sit down with some of those technicians and simply observe. She referred to this as “active shadowing.”

“Matt had a lot of initiative,” said Duncan. She said that what Stinson was looking for fit perfectly with her job title and daily tasks: “Working with Matt was fantastic.”

According to Duncan, Stinson constantly asked questions, kept himself busy and asserted himself in an appropriate manner.

“What Matt’s doing is great and matched well with us and our company’s beliefs. He had great curiosity for what he’s trying to learn and do. It’s great what he’s doing,” she said.
Similar to Huestis, Stinson’s overall goal was to take what he learned at Paragus and apply it in his own classroom.

Duncan believes that after high school, you shouldn’t have to obtain a degree in order to work. With the work of Stinson and Huestis, they are both aiming to give students as many real-world skills as they can within the walls of Agawam High School.

Collins added that it’s “great” they have these opportunities within the high schools to do more with manufacturing and IT.

Lisa Sheehan, the Career Center and internship coordinator at Agawam High School, said, “It was an amazing opportunity for both the educators and the companies that mentored them.”

In past years, Agawam High School has hosted an open house to get students exposed to these different pathways. Sheehan hopes to host more open houses.