Project Overview

Ampersand: the student journal of school & work is a compilation of essays written by students at High Tech High Media Arts in San Diego, California. All students at this school complete an internship with a local organization during their junior year, and these essays are written responses to the students’ individual experience in the internship program. 

In their essays, the students take on contemporary, real-world issues, and write about them through the eyes of a young adult. Topics include the cost of higher education, unemployment, how to dress for success, and how to improve communication in the workplace through texting. The students sorted their essays into categories related to important topics in the 21^st century: leadership and independence, problem solving, challenges and advice, political and current events, creativity and innovation, collaboration and communication and happiness. These topics reflect the goals of the internship program: to foster personal growth and to help students acquire workplace skills in a real-world environment.

Ampersand was written and edited by students and is professionally printed.