Big Picture Calls on Chamber to Help Students Find Internships

Sixty 9th graders from an experimental high school in Nashville are calling on business owners – from chefs to auto mechanics – looking for internships.

Metro’s Big Picture High School opened this fall. Part of the curriculum includes spending two days a week on the job in a field students choose.

School officials worry business owners won’t know anything about Big Picture when they get a call from an eager high school freshman.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s education man – Marc Hill – says business owners have expressed an interest in helping schools but haven’t known how. He recommends taking on a Big Picture student. Hill says the process may become a model for Metro high schools.

“I look for this Big Picture school to help inform the rest of the school system to look at redesigning our high schools. I think we’re going to learn a lot of valuable lessons, get a lot of valuable experience about how we’re going to change the rest of our high schools.”

The Big Picture High School is part of a national network of nearly 50 schools in major cities. They each follow a model of small schools where students guide their own study and spend part of the week on the job. Enrollment in Metro’s Big Picture school is first come first serve.