Last week kicked off a valuable summer work experience for hundreds of Nashville youth through the Opportunity NOW youth employment initiative. 

Through the summer internship program, Opportunity NOW students across the city will be working with various agencies and businesses to gain real life skills that will be helpful in the workplace.

We are happy to welcome five Opportunity NOW interns who will be working on a number of projects throughout the summer, including the development of partnership videos that tell the PENCIL Partner and Academies of Nashville story from a student’s perspective. 

We are thrilled to welcome five interns to the PENCIL team! Get to know our interns below: 

Front row, from left to right – Angela, Emily and Anasha
Back row, from left to right – Kiah, Tamya and Tilden

Tilden, Opportunity Now Intern Coordinator

Tilden has been with PENCIL since January assisting on a number of projects for the Partnership and Programs team. This summer, she is looking forward to facilitating a positive learning experience for the Opportunity Now interns and is excited to see them grow throughout the process.

Tilden is a Graduate Student at Vanderbilt University, where she is studying to get her Masters in Education. After graduating in December, Tilden looks forward to working with youth in greater depth. 

Angela, Cane Ridge High School

Angela is a rising junior at Cane Ridge High School in the Academy of Law. She is excited about learning something new during her internship at PENCIL this summer.

Angela also wants to learn more about filming and editing a video. In the future, Angela would like to achieve her goals, find what she enjoys doing best, and attend her dream college. 

Emily, Cane Ridge High School

Emily Tran is a rising senior at Cane Ridge High School where she is a part of the Academy of Arts and Communication. During this internship, she hopes to gain more experience in videography and learn from her peers.

In the future, Emily would like to continue music as a hobby, attend college, study computer engineering, and help others in need. 

Anasha, Hunters Lane High School

Anasha is a rising senior at Hunters Lane High School where she is studying Digital Art and Design.

During this internship, she hopes to gain knowledge of videography and teambuilding skills and she looks forward to applying the concepts she learns to future job opportunities. In the future, she would like to study art at Nossi College of Art, where she hopes to study various subjects dealing with creativity and artistic skills. She hopes that one day her talent can help make the world a better place. 

Kiah, Pearl-Cohn High School

Kiah is a rising junior at Pearl Cohn High School in the Academy of Entertainment and Management.

As an intern at PENCIL this summer, Kiah plans on using what she learns to help build the foundation for a project she is planning for the upcoming school year. She enjoys working on a team and communicating her ideas and is looking forward to working with the other PENCIL interns this summer.

Tamya, Nashville School of the Art

Tamya is a rising junior at Nashville School of the Arts where she studies music. She plays various instruments, which include the flute and piano.

As a PENCIL intern, she is excited to gain a valuable learning experience in the work industry. Tamya is very open-minded and loves to voice her opinion. Further on in her career she would like to go to college and major in psychology, as she is interested in how the mind works. She wants to travel the world and open her mind to new things. 

During their first couple of weeks, the students have spent time learning from different PENCIL Partners. Alan from Benchfly spent a day teaching them how to create effective, motivating videos. Kelly with KGV Studios spent a day coaching the interns on developing a strategy for videography, utilizing creativity to tell a good story and how to create a storyboard. 

These lessons help set the framework for the tasks that the interns will focus on throughout the remainder of the summer.  Thank you, Alan and Kelly, for spending a day investing in our students!