Students are so much more than the grades they get in school. Many high school students participate in extracurricular activities, as well as have jobs within our community. Doing all of these things at once can be a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. This is why it is important to highlight the exceptional young people that live within our community.

The individual above is Hayden Fisher. He is a graduate at Brunswick County Early College High School. This is a five-year program that ends with not only a high school diploma, but also an associate’s degree. Students earn their associate’s degree two weeks before they earn their high school diploma. Hayden is called a graduate because he will graduate this year. Once he graduates, he hopes to go to college at North Carolina State University.

Hayden is one of the many high school students who works at an internship. Internships are a requirement for graduate students. He works an internship at the Brunswick County IT Department. Here, Hayden tests out new software developed by some of our software engineers in Brunswick County. He makes sure that the software runs smoothly, operates well, and does not experience any bugs or issues. This helps ensure that the software this organization is putting out there is as effective as it can be. At Hayden’s internship, he works most closely with Jonah and Aric, two software engineers. They teach him about what qualities good software possesses and how to create it.

You might be wondering what got Hayden interested in doing this internship? Well, he has always been interested in technology and wanted to discover if he would be interested in pursuing a career in this subject area as well. This internship helped solidify his desire to work in technology.

Hayden would like to have a career in software development or perhaps a video game developer once he graduates. Luckily, Hayden feels that he is getting skills from his internship that will aid him in his future career. One of the skills Hayden is learning at his internship is the process of how to develop software, which will definitely help him in either of the career fields he wants to pursue.

Overall, Hayden feels that there is a good work environment where he interns. He said that the staff in his department did a good job at helping him warm up to his job, as well as the people he interacts with at his internship. He feels that he is building good relationships at his internship as well as obtaining good advice about pursuing a career in this field.

To close everything up, a word of advice from Hayden for those looking to find an internship that have the same interests as him: “The Brunswick County Government Complex is very eager to take interns; however, computer repair shops probably won’t answer your emails. I know from experience.”