For as long as Elda-Flore Adoko can remember, she’s felt a calling to help others.

Knowing what you’re passionate about is part of the equation when deciding a career path, finding a career that pays you for what you want to do can sometimes be the tricky part.

Adoko, a Ralston High School senior, was in that situation last fall.

“My whole life, honestly, I’ve really always liked helping people,” Adoko said. “At first I thought I wanted to be a social worker, but then I wanted to help patients more and build that bond with them, so I went down the medical field.”

That’s when Adoko found out about an opportunity to get real-life knowledge and experience through Ralston Public Schools’ Avenue Scholars program, which partners with Intern Omaha, which in turn matches employers with interns. Avenue Scholars’ High School Career Coach Beth Leach recommended Adoko apply for an internship after hearing the then-junior talk about her desire to help others.

“(Leach) told me about the opportunity and told me to apply now because she thought it was a great opportunity and I did, too,” Adoko said. “She had me apply for all the medical positions I could find, and I chose Fulton Homes Education Center. They teach phlebotomy, CNA, medic, basically any certification you need they have.”

Giving students a real, first-hand look at the career they think they want can either confirm their choice or make them rethink their path, but either way going through this process in high school can save time and money later on.

If you’re confident in your choice you can gain experience and credits through the program giving you a huge head start once in college. On the other hand, if you find that the actual duties of the job aren’t for you, you can change course and pursue something different, but you will get this out of the way in high school instead of changing majors in college, which wastes time and is costly.

The program helps students throughout the metro, and in the case of Ralston’s partnership it was a case of demand from students, according to Ralston Public Schools Career Education Coordinator Josh Wilken.

“For us, this started as a result of need. We see so many students who are interested in work-based learning, and we create as many opportunities as we possibly can in our career academies here at Ralston High School, but we also know that students want the opportunity to explore different career paths we may not be able to offer in our academy programs,” Wilken said. “This is an opportunity to extend that learning to give students paid internship opportunities with quality businesses that brings structure in this partnership with Intern Omaha.”

For the experience to be beneficial for both intern and employer, an application process tries to identify students interested in the field and ones who will take it seriously.

The goal is not to sugarcoat the experience, but give the intern a realistic picture of the job, while at the same time being accommodating enough to work with the schedule of a busy high school student.

“I was pleasantly surprised that my supervisors communicate really well with me if I need time off and try to find other solutions,” Adoko said. “I just did not expect the amount of work I was going to be doing. I love the work I do, but it’s just a quite a bit.”

That structure, which also includes getting paid, is important to the success and validity of the program, says Ana Lopez Shalla, who is the director of business outreach for Avenue Scholars.

“(A paid internship) honors what they’re bringing to the table. The work (Adoko) is doing is real work and it’s a lot of it,” Shalla said. “(She) is providing return on investment for (her) employer every single day.”

And that work is setting Adoko up to have a nice head start toward her college and post-college life.

“(Getting paid) is very validating to the investment that our students are making in this process,” Wilken said. “(Adoko) talked about the level of rigor she sees in the work she’s doing in her internship. She’s not sitting in watching, she’s doing the work and that’s a result of the training she’s done at Ralston High School, being a part of our medical academy, getting her CNA, already thinking forward about getting her phlebotomy certification and what comes next for her in post-secondary education, but she brings a lot skills and talents to the table. I think it’s a motivator for our students to be financially compensated monetarily and otherwise.”

The program also teaches an informal class on Being an Adult 101.

“Students are required to get themselves to these internships. They have to pay for their own gas, buy uniforms in some cases, and so there is a financial component that they invest as well,” Wilken said. “There are so many intrinsic things that are going to be valuable in this experience like skills that will be developed and great connections that they’re going to make.”

Adoko confirmed those sentiments with her real-life account.

“(Money) is definitely a big motivator because it definitely pushed me to work harder,” Adoko said. “It also showed me a lot about managing my money. I’m not (spending) it as I used to, I’m thinking conservatively now and thinking about my future and making plans.”

In Adoko’s case, her experience confirmed her career path and set her up to succeed in the future. She would like to be a clinical psychologist one day and has plans to get her phlebotomist certification while attending college.

She said she feels like she’s headed in the right direction with a plan.

“This job set me on the right path,” she said.