Youth Opportunities Unlimited is proud to be the Northeast Ohio intermediary for the state-wide High School Tech Internship program. This year, 141 interns from 13 local counties held internships in key tech industries such as software development, cybersecurity and data, cloud and IT infrastructure.

One of those internship sites was University Hospitals IT, which hosted 14 interns this summer. Hear from three of those interns and their mentors on their internship experience!

Hayden – Senior at Lorain County JVS

Hayden, age 17, interned at University Hospital’s Data Center and Server Storage area this summer. 

Hayden primarily worked in the data center, gaining a hands-on experience in technology operations. He performed tasks such as taking out and decommissioning servers, managing reports and paperwork,troubleshooting issues and other data center tasks. A big project was moving data to the cloud through SharePoint online.

“In order to move that data there, I have to find the file owners. And that's also a huge part because how are you going to move something if you don't know the owners of the files?” he said. “And that's pretty much one of the main things we've been working on.”

The main skills he learned were communication and teamwork.

“I also didn't know a lot about data centers or anything like that. I'm more of a software kind of guy, but I just wanted to get a background behind it. It's like, what's operating all this software server stuff. It was pretty cool seeing server data center layouts as well.”

His favorite part of the internship was the people as they are “really welcoming and they're very open with me.” He would recommend the internship program to get a head start in your career.

“Even if you don't know what you want to do yet, it's a very good program to just discover anything that's out there,” Hayden said. “And even if it's something you are not 100 percent sure you want to pursue, it is still very vital to get those skills, even if you do end up changing your mind halfway through.”

For his future career, Hayden is considering the U.S. Navy for either air traffic control or criminological warfare technician (CWT).

“If I do go the CWT route for the Navy, it would help because I'd have that hospital infrastructure kind of background. It looks good on a resume. And it's kind of like the back end for IT. And that'd be critical.”

Terry Polomsky – Mentor to Hayden

Hayden’s mentor during his internship was Terry Polomsky, Manager, IT Server and Storage.

“I enjoyed mentoring young people. I've been in the industry for many, many years, so we kind of take pride in doing this. We enjoy the younger people coming in,” Terry said.

He notes how his intern’s first task is to meet with each person across the data center to get a wide knowledge of how they operate.

“We try to give them enough of an overview of our department and then we get them involved with a project that is pertinent to what we're working on today. And, you know, get them some real-life experience in IT.”

Terry enjoys having high school interns as they come with a lot of enthusiasm. He looks for people who ask questions and provide new perspectives, knowing the team can always improve.

“So Hayden’s been here seven weeks and I really enjoy having him here because he is very enthusiastic, very outgoing,” Terry said, adding that most interns initially are very shy and don’t want to bother anyone, but Hayden quickly grew to asking for more work or to review a project. “I've seen that progression to where now he's very comfortable talking to everybody in the group and getting the answers he needs to get his job done.”

“We try to give them a broader scope of technology as a whole so they can get an understanding on what they want to do with their life,” Terry added. “I think it's a great program. I enjoy doing it and we enjoy doing it as an organization. Anything we can do to help the younger people come along, I think that's a great idea.”

Daniel — Recent Graduate from North High School

A recent graduate from North High School and Excel TECC Career Technical Program, Daniel worked with the UH networking department over the summer. His second year with the Y.O.U. Internship Program, he had first interned with Highland Software in 2024, which focused more on software development and web design.

“In contrast to my last internship, this one is a lot less working with other interns from Y.O.U. and a lot more working with other employees in the networking department,” he said, adding he was able to gain a lot more knowledge in a variety of areas. “This would come through a lot in my data center visits. A lot of these in-person visits were only possible with the help of these coworkers I had. And it was really nice to be able to work with them and see all these different locations.”

This internship focused on learning a lot of technical skills. Daniel primarily worked with the operations team, assisting with incoming tickets, implementing fixes and building new projects.

His favorite part of the internship was going on-site with his co-worker Matt to work hands-on with the network closet. As a ticket would come in, Matt would prompt him to go figure out why something wasn’tworking.

“This was a lot easier to understand and it was the most direct way of me fixing something as a ticket was put in,” Daniel said. “I'd have to poke around the network closet, look at the cords, make sure everything'splugged in and all that. And it was really fun and very hands on. So it was a good example of how a day-to-day experience or ticket would go.”

“I would definitely recommend this program. Especially in my area of computer science, early internships and early work experience is very important. And being able to see exactly which skills you're lacking in and which skills you need to focus on.”

Daniel is at Kent State University now and is currently planning to be a cybersecurity analyst or cybersecurity with a focus in digital forensics. “So tracking where people have gone and looking at how they got inand what they're doing. And in that field, it's mostly people who aren't supposed to be in there, and you're trying to figure out a lot of different things like that.”

Marcus Barnovsky – Mentor to Daniel

Marcus Barnovsky, the manager of the network team at University Hospitals, saw a definite increase in comfort level as Daniel progressed through the internship.

“Just hearing that he was excited to get hands on and go into some of our data centers, our main data closets. It's definitely a positive experience. And it feels good to see that he had the chance to actually touchthose and learn a bit about those.”

“One of the cool parts about working with interns is everybody seems to come with a bit of a different perspective on what they think networking is,” he added. “As with Dan, Dan came with some experience doing programing with one of his other internships. So he had a cool lens on how interacting with other team members looks like. Here, we have a pretty senior team that's been working for a while. And Dan came in and got the opportunity to see how they work with the years of experience that they've had.”

Matthew Hall – Mentor to Daniel

Another mentor to Daniel was Matthew Hall, Network Operations. He handles day-to-day tasks such as carrying what is called the on-call phone. Employees call the phone with any networking needs.

“Towards the end of the internship. Daniel has been doing that,” Matthew said. “I'm right beside him if he needs help. But he's been doing great and he's been able to handle it just fine.”

Matthew notes how an internship really helps show high schoolers how a corporation works.

“Daniel was very open to see how everything happened, how we did everything day to day. And he picked up on a lot of things very fast on how things work and how networking is in all aspects,” adding that having interns straight out of high school is great because they are still learning and still able to learn.

“It is a great way to bring our youth into the workforce and prepare them for their life, rather than just straight out of high school into more school,” Matthew said. “The best experience is experience. So I would hands down recommend Y.O.U. to everybody.”

Avi – Senior at Solon High School

Avi interned in the Radiology Informatics department at University Hospitals.

Avi’s tasks involved entry level projects and helping the team with daily tasks. Most projects were working with research requests, looking at how they can use different research studies coming into UH.

“I mainly work on research requests, which are mainly doctors or other workers at the hospitals asking for specific studies of particular patients, which they use for different purposes,” Avi said. “Other than that, I've been also doing shadowing, watching others work on different apps.”

This is Avi’s first-ever work experience, so he notes how he has learned a lot over the summer.

“Before this, I didn't know much about medical work in general, but seeing how computers and other apps were used in hospital work, it's eye opening to me. I didn't know this happened, I only thought of doctors and nurses before.”

As for skills, Avi said his biggest skill he learned was working together as a team, constantly learning and asking lots of questions.

“I think that Y.O.U. is one of the few programs out there that really give those kids serious about their future career a head start before becoming an adult.”

Avi is currently planning on majoring in IT or computer science.

“Getting this internship has been helpful because I didn't know much about medical work before, and especially seeing how IT applies to this, that's helpful. Who knows when I might need this in the future,” he added. “And also just getting that experience of working on a job, which I've never had before.”

Melissa Olah – Mentor to Avi

Melissa Olah mentored Avi this summer through her role as a Lead Radiology Informatics Analyst.

“This is my first time being a mentor to one of the high school interns. It was a different experience,” Melissa said. “I think it's a great opportunity and an awesome experience for the high schoolers. I have kids myself, so this was kind of eye opening. It was a learning experience for me, as well as our high school intern.”

Since this was Avi’s first work experience, Melissa enjoyed teaching him both professional and personal skills in a job setting. She noted how Avi was very quiet at first, but by the end, he wasn't afraid to ask questions. She saw lot of growth both personally and professionally.

“Avi started to get more comfortable opening up, learning the ropes of the team and kind of took control of all the tasks on his own. I'd call him and say, hey, do you need help? And he knew what to do,” she said.“And today, he's like, I'm good, Melissa, I don't need help. So definite professional growth. Just in a short time, I feel like he's learned a lot.”

“I definitely would recommend this program for a lot of students,” Melissa added. “Even in a short time, there's a lot of growth… it gives a lot of social skills, a lot of professional skills, and just an advance to the next level.”

High School Interns Gain Hand-on Tech Experience with University Hospitals IT