As graduation nears, and adulthood inches closer for seniors, many are planning their future career paths. With the help of COOL Week, Career Opportunities on Location, seniors were given the ability to intern at their desired profession from Feb. 6-10.

The internships ranged from working at your community church to watching live surgeries. Senior Roxy Mota interned at Optimize Neurology where she learned about the neurological aspect of medicine and it’s impact on patients.  

“Most of the COOL week people just watched surgeries,” Mota said. “However, I wanted a more in depth experience where I could listen and learn from the lives of patients rather than just operate on them.”  

While interning, students learned more about their field and discovered information that they may not have known before. Mota gained more knowledge through sitting in with the doctor and patients where she could hear their concerns and their stories.

“[The most interesting thing] was probably that a lot of psychiatric problems can transfer into neurological health issues, and solving a patient’s medical issue is experimental,” Mota said.

Senior Kaleigh Brown interned at her own church, Celebration, where she helped out in the creative youth department by helping pick out the graphics and choosing merchandise for an upcoming conference.

“The internship made me really confident and sure of what I wanted to do,” Brown said. “I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to do youth ministry or creative arts in the church, and this week really showed me that I will definitely go in the creative direction.”

While at Celebration Church, Brown also helped with the women’s and youth conferences coming up through marketing and getting the word out.

“It’s awesome to see how much work they put into events and services every week just to reach out to people,” Brown said.

Some internships were more hands on than others, like senior Allison McCarty’s. McCarty interned at Daybreak Games in Austin.

“We spent the whole week developing and building a game from scratch, so making the game was my favorite part,” McCarty said. “The people there were really invested with helping us have a great time and making a game we were really proud of.”