When Sahar Ibrahimi came to the United States from Afghanistan about three years ago, she enrolled at the International High School at Prospect Heights. She watched her older classmates, all recent immigrants like her, take part in the school’s senior year internship program.

“I’d been seeing them getting dressed and going to those internships and I think it’s a great experience, it’s a real life experience that you get, and I had always been looking forward to doing an internship,” she said.

Then, the pandemic hit, drastically changing how the school could operate for her senior year.

“I think every student had that fear of not getting an internship, and I also had that fear,” Ibrahimi said.

This year, the school was not able to send students off-campus for in-person internships like they normally would, requiring them to get creative.

“We really looked at the most important parts of our internship experience - that was learning work readiness skills, having adults outside of our school community to be able to practice them with, understanding the role of post-secondary education and getting you to a career that you want,” assistant principal Suzannah Taylor said.

To help students have those experiences, they launched a virtual internship program with St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn. The program has allowed students to meet virtually with professors to learn about subjects they might study in college, and to learn from staff in the college’s career readiness office. The college was happy to help students hang on to a big part of their senior year.

“Anyone who knows a high schooler personally I think feels bad for the high schooler,” Phillip Dehne, executive dean at the college, said. “I know speaking for myself at lead, I think everyone here at the college is really eager to make the lives of the high schoolers of New York better.”

The program has helped Ibrahimi, who will attend Hunter College, better understand the path from college to a career.

“It helped me a lot in understanding my interests - it also taught me that there’s no need to rush in choosing my major just right after going to college,” Ibrahimi said.

It’s a lesson she and other classmates took to heart.

“Next year, I will go to Baruch and I will go to study - I will go undecided and learn about other things and take my time to choose my major,” Afeef Murshed, who immigrated to the U.S. from Yemen, said.

For the students, it was a welcome way to cap off a unique high school experience they say flew by.

“I’m feeling happy and sad - because I am leaving and I don’t know, I am thinking that this time happened really fast,” said Henry Alfaro, originally from El Salvador.