The All About Hennessey POST Features students from the Hennessey High School intern program each week. This week’s students are Yoali Castanon & Yahir Alvarez
Yoali Castanon is a senior at HHS. She was born in Denver, Colorado, but has lived in the Hennessey area most of her life. While attending HHS she has participated in volleyball and FCCLA.
In her sophomore year, she began to show an interest in becoming a radiologist technician. Her mother had injured her leg and while accompanying her to the imaging clinic, she was fascinated by all the machines. When the technician noticed Yoali was taking an interest, she engaged Yoali in conversation. During that conversation, Yoali learned about the different imaging machines and how they are vital to diagnoses which then leads to a personalized health plan for the patient. Her interest in radiology remained even after her mother recovered from her injury.
Since Yoali was unable to secure an internship in radiology, she went the route that a few other interns have traveled and focused on working on soft skills. These are skills required for all careers. Her particular skill of concentration was communication.
She is working with Hennessey Schools’ ELL director, Mrs. Sosa. Mrs. Sosa is based at the elementary school. Yoali is used as a translator if needed, but most of her time is spent working with the students. She has stayed busy assisting with teaching and also was helpful to Mrs. Sosa in preparing for the administration of the yearly testing of ELL students to assess their progress in the English language.
Yaoli plans on attending Rose State College to earn her associate’s and earn her B.S. degree in Medical Imaging and Radiation Science.
Yahir Alvarez is a senior at HHS with a career interest in welding. He is currently interning at Thurmond Gas and his host is Molly Ryel.
Yahir was born in Mexico. He first attended Hennessey Schools as a fourth grader. Yahir has been in the Ag class offered here at HHS for a couple of years. It was in this class that he got his first exposure to welding and developed his interest in the field. He has had several work experiences as a high school student. The summer after his sophomore year he worked for D&K Recycling. After his junior year he worked for a roofing company installing a new roof on a middle school in Oklahoma City. He has also had some experience working on a farm for Bryan Pollard. In his free time, he likes to go to the gym and play video games with his friend, Victor.
Yahir started his internship at the beginning of the second semester, and since he already had some experience in welding going into the internship, he has been getting a lot of hands-on work. He is currently cutting metal and welding on a pipe skid which he enjoys. After graduating from high school, Yahir wants to work with an experienced welder and gain a working knowledge of the occupation to prepare him to take the state exam and become a licensed welder.
Both Yoali & Alvarez are part of the Hennessey School Career & Internship Program. This program, directed by Kim Hallmark matches students with business allowing them to experience real-life day-to-day operations in a career field they have an interest in.
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