TAF@Saghalie junior Feliciana is determined to achieve success. During the five years she’s attended TAF’s 6-12th-grade public STEM school, she’s taken advantage of mostly every opportunity offered to gain critical career skills. And its paid off, four times over. This past summer, Feliciana was offered four summer internship opportunities as a result of dedicated preparation.

Recently, we sat down with Feliciana to learn more about her educational experience, internships, and plans for the future.

How long have you attended TAF@Saghalie?
I’ve been at TAF since 6th-grade when it was at the old location in the portables.

How has your experience been?
I’ve made a lot of really good friends and met a lot of people in the career I aspire to pursue. I would say my time at TAF has been pretty solid.

What do you think TAF provides students that they may not get at another school?
When I was at one of my internships, I was talking about how I found out about the internship opportunity through Ms. Sarah. She often runs into our classes shoving opportunities in our faces. I love it though [laughing]! My peers were telling me about how lucky I am, how they had to find out about the internship on their own, and how they wished they had someone like Ms. Sarah at their school.

I hear you landed four internship offers last year — Port of Seattle, KUOW, Advancing Leadership Youth Program, and Zillow Group’s Internship Day. What do you think contributed to your success?
Ms. Sarah helped me a lot with my cover letter and resume. She gave me suggestions on how I could make it better.

Which internship did you ultimately go with, and why?
I went with Port of Seattle for a variety of reasons: the pay was better than the other internships, one of my classmates was going to be an intern there too, and the location was closest to my house.

What advice would you give students who would like to land an internship?
Include a cover letter that truly expresses your sincere desire to work for the company, explain how you can personally gain from the experience and why you are the perfect fit for the role. Look over their mission statement, explain how you can help them in their mission, and how you relate to it.

Last question, since everyone wants to know… What are your plans after graduation?
Ever since 6th-grade, I’ve wanted to go to Berkeley University to study computer science. While Berkeley is my top choice, I’m also thinking about going to University of Washington to study computer science or informatics. Once I’m in college, I hope to land another internship at some big tech company so I can understand the feel of the workforce and environment.

TAF prepares students to enter the industry by partnering with local companies to provide career connected learning experiences to rising leaders. Help more students like Feliciana get a head start. Just $30 a month covers a STEMbyTAF education for one student.