November is National Career Development Month and we want to celebrate the month by highlighting our current Richmond Senior interns!

When senior Michael DeMay was younger, he said his dad brought him to work with him one day at his body shop where he also did some welding.

“I saw what he was doing and thought it was neat,” DeMay recounted.

When DeMay saw they were offering a welding course at Richmond Senior High School, he decided to give it a shot.

“When I came here, I fell in love with the class and I realized I wanted to make it my future profession,” he said.

But welding wasn’t always the path DeMay thought he wanted to go down. He planned to go to school for business, but after talking with Richmond Senior’s Career Development Coordinator Jason Perakis, DeMay said he discovered a new path that sounded more like what he was interested in.

DeMay plans to finish his welding courses and complete the Substation Program at Richmond Community College. After he completes the program, he’ll move wherever the job takes him.

Through his internship, DeMay said he’s learning a lot about what it takes to work in a welding environment and he’s learning the importance of teamwork.

“No one wants to see you fail,” he said. “They want to see you all achieve the same goal.”

DeMay said his time in the CTE program has been very helpful and the virtual internship has worked great with his schedule.

“Everyone is super helpful,” he said of his instructors. “And they’ve helped me figure out what I want to do in the future.”