Consider a donation in support of the National Alliance Alumni Intern Program to help students like David.
With the pandemic limiting options for young adults entering the workforce, the National Alliance is committed to hiring charter school alumni for all our internships. These paid internships provide real-world experience and training that can easily translate into a variety of fields.
We’re helping students like David Segura gain experience in their field of choice and pursue their career goals. David will be working with the National Alliance as an intern in strategic initiatives, where he will help us build a database of charter school supporters across the nation.
David is an alumnus of KIPP Austin College Prep middle school and KIPP Austin Collegiate high school. After attending KIPP, he attended the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated this May with a major in marketing and a minor in management information systems. He is a first-generation college graduate and previously interned for the KIPP Foundation, Accenture, and ABC Home & Commercial Services.
I sat down with David to discuss his career goals and what working at the National Alliance means to him:
How did attending a charter school impact your education and professional outcomes?
KIPP taught me a lot and made me think about college from an early age. Students who go to KIPP are there because they want to improve their lives. We all go in with that common goal and it just elevates all of us.
Professionally, KIPP inspired me to want to give back to my community. I am very grateful for all the support KIPP provided me and it makes me want to return the favor. I want to help more people from underserved communities to break the glass ceiling. I just need to find my career footing first.
How has the pandemic impacted your professional opportunities?
Professionally, the pandemic has made it a lot more difficult to find a full-time job since a lot of businesses have lowered the number of employees they hire. Having to work from home has also limited my professional development because—although it has its perks—I’m still not getting the same level of instruction that comes with in-person interaction.
Mentally, this pandemic has led to a lot of stress and self-doubt. I’m stressed out because I want to start my professional career, but there are very limited opportunities. This then leads to self-doubt because I start believing that I am not good enough to compete in this job market.
What project are you most excited to work on during your time with the National Alliance Alumni Intern Program?
I am excited to bring awareness to more people about the impact of charter schools. As a former charter school student, I know how life-changing attending one of these schools can be.
I am currently building out a list of charter school supporters and the next step will be to reach out to this list and see if they want to support the National Alliance. I am adding to my skill set by learning how to use new tools that I can apply in my career. For example, I will get the opportunity to work with a CRM tool called Raiser’s Edge.
I want to go into the field of data analytics, but a lot of entry-level jobs in this field require some previous experience working with data. This project will provide me with that experience, allowing me to have a stronger profile when I apply for these roles.
What are your career goals, and how does your current internship support that?
I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do in the future. I realized that I chose the wrong major and wish I would have studied finance instead. I realize that it might be a long shot to try to find a finance position without a finance degree and that is why I would like to go into the field of data science, either as a data analyst or a business intelligence analyst.
My current internship supports my career goal by allowing me to work with data and learn to use CRM tools. Most importantly, I am building experience I can add to my resume which is what employers value most.
I am very grateful to KIPP and the National Alliance for allowing me to join their teams during these difficult times and build experience.
Kyle Breckenridge is the senior manager of strategic initiatives for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
