Team Member Spotlight: Chicago Lab Tech Intern Frankie Jarvis
With support from the DuPage Foundation, Jarvis has built hard and soft skills he’ll take into his career, and greater clarity on where he wants to head next.
Like most teenagers, Frankie Jarvis has always been into computers. Unlike most teenagers, however, he has been troubleshooting and wiping hard drives for years.
Driven by his interest in tech, the 18-year-old had already opted into a program his high school offers in partnership with the
Technology Center of DuPage to learn a specific trade. So, when his Computer Information Systems teacher mentioned an internship opportunity working with computers, he jumped at the chance.
“It was two days a week on days I’m typically free, interacting with computers, taking them apart, something I've never gotten to do,” Jarvis recalls. “I thought it’d be a good experience. In the past, whenever I ran into a problem with my PC, I’d have to wipe the hard drive or get help. I wanted to get to the point where I could fix things by myself with relative ease.”
Now months into the internship, Jarvis has certainly increased his computer repair knowledge. “Early on, I was completely new to troubleshooting so the team helped me a lot as far as teaching me how to wipe hard drives or install operating systems.”
The internship has also helped him develop valuable soft skills, like time management and teamwork. Whereas in his first job he worked weekends, Frankie explains that this internship has helped him achieve a greater balance between personal, work, and school life. “I have also learned to work with other people more effectively in this job because I’m part of a team here.”
As he looks ahead to college in the fall, he’ll be starting with more certainty in his decision to study computer science with a concentration in IT or cybersecurity: “This internship has made me more confident to explore the IT field.”
