NEWS

Hendricken seniors get outside classroom experience

Posted 5/25/22

AIDAN CAHILL and DANIEL FRANCHETTI 

Bishop Hendricken’s Senior Experience program has concluded after a successful comeback year. In this program, seniors at Bishop Hendricken work at …

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NEWS

Hendricken seniors get outside classroom experience

Posted

AIDAN CAHILL and DANIEL FRANCHETTI 


Bishop Hendricken’s Senior Experience program has concluded after a successful comeback year. In this program, seniors at Bishop Hendricken work at an internship instead of attending Monday classes over ten weeks in the spring semester. The program began in 1976 with the objective of fostering social and business connections, allowing students to explore different disciplines, and preparing and motivating students for future internship opportunities. This year retired Supreme Court Justice Francis Flaherty assisted the program’s coordinator James Pierce in lining up internships for students after the program was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the rocky restart to the program, Pierce is happy how it unfolded. “It was awesome. We had a great ten weeks.”  

Colin Naughton is a prime example of just one of many sagacious seniors. He shadowed the staff at Toll Gate Radiology. He humbly remarked, “I just look at scans and stuff.” Naughton was hailed as an “author prodigy” by ABC News when he wrote his first book “Not So Spooky Halloween” nine years ago. While he is no longer pursuing a writing career and has set his sights on engineering at The University of Rhode Island, he found that his time working in radiology has changed his perspective on his future prospects, “I wasn’t considering [radiology] in any capacity but I am now.”  

Then there is Joseph Santa Cruz, co-captain of the Bishop Hendricken’s sailing team, who spent his Senior Experience working at New England Yacht Rigging in Warwick. “I’m learning a lot more about the backend of the sailing industry,” Santa Cruz said. “It’s actually given me a lot more connections into actually racing, as well.” It has not changed his future outlook, however, as Santa Cruz will be attending Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute to pursue aeronautical engineering.  

The experiences range beyond just desk work. Brendan McCaffrey, a Saint Joseph’s College of Maine baseball commit, participated in ride-alongs with Warwick Police and spent time at the courts observing how the justice system works. “It’s been a really good experience,” he said about his time. “I think I’m going to consider going into a criminal justice program rather than business now because I find law to be a lot more interesting.”   

Aidan Cahill spent his internship at the Warwick Beacon. “The experience overall has been quite memorable,” he said about his time at the paper. “It’s actually helped me decide what I want to do in college, as I declared undecided, but am now strongly considering a creative writing major with a minor in journalism.”

His favorite experience at the Beacon was covering a record shop opening in Pawtuxet Village, and later hearing about people visiting the shop after reading the article. “Being able to work with Dan has also been such a great experience, too. You don’t often get a chance to work alongside one of your best friends, and to me that has only elevated the experience.” He had always wanted to write for a newspaper, which meant doing so was only the obvious choice for him. In the fall, Aidan is attending The University of Rhode Island.  

Daniel Franchetti also worked at the Warwick Beacon for his internship.

“It was difficult at first to go out and interview people. But over time I became more comfortable with taking interviews.” he said. His first assignment was to cover the Academic Decathlon in March. “Before even entering the office for work I was thrust into the field,” he recalls. “It definitely required the most work out of all of the articles I have written since I had to try to give all the teams there the attention they deserved.” However, one of his best memories is, “having one of my greatest friends Aidan working closely with me to check over work and conduct interviews.” Franchetti recalls how he first had the idea of interning at the newspaper, “I was at a boating event for Academic Decathlon and saw Mr. Howell covering the event. We struck up a conversation and decided that my Senior Experience would be with the newspaper.” Franchetti has stated he has a strong affinity for his school’s newspaper which he has solely operated for the last four years. He will be attending St. John’s University in Queens to pursue Actuarial Science.  

While learning about the history of the program, a few teachers took some time to discuss their senior experiences when they were students at Bishop Hendricken. John Manning, a history teacher specializing in U.S. History and government, had an internship in orthopedics in 2006. He was split between that and teaching. His father was a teacher, however, so he knew a lot about the field, thus he chose to intern in orthopedics. Thomas Wynne, a history teacher specializing in European history, worked as an assistant to a history class in 2010. Wynne claims that much of his teaching style came from this experience, seeing what he believed worked, and did not work, and modifying the style to what he believed worked best. Daniel Brennan, another history teacher specializing in American history, worked with an inclusion program in 2000. At the time, programs like that were uncommon, so he said it was incredibly impactful for him. He said that this led to him being elated when Bishop Hendricken began its inclusion program, the Options Program. The teachers’ opinions on the program are mixed. Of course, teachers are aware that some students are not making the most out of it, and using it to take Mondays off class, but they are also aware that others truly get a lot out of the program, helping send students on their way to entering the career of their choosing.


EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was co-written by Daniel Franchetti and Aiden Cahill, participants in Hendricken’s Senior Experience program. They chose to interview one another about our experience, too.

Hendricken, seniors

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