Good Vibes Only: Ysleta ISD students refine skills during summer break
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA)—This summer, a select group of Ysleta ISD students participated in a summer internship with Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
Five high schoolers from YISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program participated in Marathon’s internship program from June through July. According to YISD, the interns are rising seniors. These students underwent a competitive selection process.
The internship provided a hands-on experience in a real-world setting that will help them succeed in their future careers.
The participating students include Parkland High School's Emilio Escarcega; Del Valle High School’s Dylan Lujan; Ysleta High School’s Aaron Marquez and Jordyn Villarreal; and Elias Quinonez, who attends Riverside High School.
"They're getting a real taste of what it's like to work at Marathon. So from the time they are getting here in the morning. They're working as if they already work here for our company,” said Tommy Skinner, the refinery’s human resources director.
“We were there training them, teaching them, showing them. They were interacting with the refinery people,” Victor Vela, the IT manager at Marathon, said.
ABC-7 spoke to the students about taking part in this unique program.
“The experience I had here was very fulfilling because I got to meet with the project managers. I got to meet tech service engineers, and they all taught me so many valuable skills in their career path." Emilio said.
“Anyone I would talk to was nice, and they were willing to help,” Dylan said.
“I've heard about stuff like this, but I've never really seen it in practice. So being able to see it, it's really been interesting and fun for me,” Aaron said.
“The people I got to meet, each individual, and the way they got involved,” Elias answered when asked about his favorite part of the program.
The students were able to meet and work alongside Marathon employees and develop new skills.
"We need to learn a lot of soft skills. We have a lot of them understand math and science, but we need to understand how to work in groups and how to do presentations and those kinds of things and, and I feel like this type of environment kind of forces you to learn how to do those things,” Rebecca Ayala, an environmental engineer, added.
Now, the five students said they are ready to incorporate their new skills in the classroom and beyond.
“I'm so confident now that, like, it's really inspired me and challenged me and ultimately has helped me in my abilities," one student explained.
