Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District -

Students in Art Mata’s computer technician class at Grapevine High School are seeing first-hand that the skills they are learning translate into potential job opportunities, thanks to an internship with a local company.

“In class, I tell students about what the industry looks like and they say ‘k, cool,’ but when they come here to eTech they get to see it,” Mata said. “They see people who are actually doing this for a living. They get to see what a job in the tech industry feels like.”

The internship with eTech Parts Plus, a leading vendor for device maintenance with specialization in parts, repair and training, started thanks to a chance meeting between the company’s Vice President of Business Development Bryce Kelley and GCISD Chief Technology Officer Kyle Berger.

“In the past, students have interned in our GCISD Technology Department in the district, but being able to partner with community businesses really takes it to the next level and gives students on-the-job experience that they will need in the real world,” Berger stated.

“We were thinking of a program to give back to the community and our schools, so it was the right place, right time,” Kelley added.

Twice a week, two students from Mata’s class were interning at the company, shadowing technicians who were working on iPhone, iPad and Chromebook repair.

“As far as the hands-on side, they did get to work on some Chromebooks and worked on a project where they took all of the components out of an iPhone, which they had to re-assemble in a shadow box,” said Bobby Garza, eTech’s director of repair and training operations. “They were looking at things and asking great questions.”

Garza added that the students were also shown the other areas that go into a company, such as sales, inventory and warehouse management.

“Mr. Mata has put a big emphasis on that it's not just knowing the repairs, but all the other things that go into it – ticketing, managing inventory, managing expectations, working with a customer,” Garza explained.

The internship concluded the week of May 12, but the company’s partnership with GCISD is only continuing. eTech is offering the GCISD interns an opportunity to apply for a paid summer internship with the company.

“We will go through the entire interview process as if we were hiring an employee and by now with their experience they can all probably put a polished resume together,” Garza stated.

That is because not only is the class now offering an internship, students in Mata’s class, which is the third in series, can also earn Dell certification. This is a tech industry recognized validation that the individual has foundational knowledge in technology.

“For students, we hope that they understand that there is true application in what they are learning every day in the classroom and they can put that to use,” Berger said. “For us in GCISD, we find that this is important to connect students with real-world opportunities.”