Youth Experiences
Exploring Opportunities
Our Elevate program team coordinates learning opportunities, paid work experiences, and various events for youth. Through our experiences, you'll learn about and explore career opportunities, gain skills, and develop confidence in your abilities! Check out our opportunities below.
Learning Opportunities
Job Shadows
Job shadows provide a sneak peek into a career. Applicants are matched with a company in their field of interest for a 3-hour job shadow experience. Job shadow sessions are held twice a year.
Winter Job Shadows
- Registration: Tuesday, January 7 - Tuesday, January 14
- Mandatory Orientation: Friday, January 31, 4:00 - 5:00 pm (Virtual)
- Experience: Fridays, February 7, 14, 21, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm or 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm (Various Locations)
DevNW Financial Foundations Courses
We partner with DevNW to offer youth Financial Foundations courses.
Are you working to save for a car, a degree, or your first apartment? Financial Foundations class will teach you the techniques and provide you with the mobile tools to reach your goals. You’ll learn to manage money, build emergency savings, create savings goals for big purchases, build and repair credit, and make smart decisions about taking on loans. Open to all Lane County high school students or youth from eligible programs.
Industry Tours
Our team curates various industry tours each school year. Check out our 2024/2025 tours!
- Manufacturing Tour
- Thursday, October 17, 2024
- Open to Manufacturing CTE Programs
- Registration opens Monday, September 23, 2024.
- Health Tour:
- Thursday, February 13, 2025
- Open to Health CTE Programs
- Registration opens Monday, January 13, 2025.
- Technology Tour:
- Thursday, March 13, 2025
- Open to Computer Science CTE Programs
- Registration opens Monday, February 10, 2025.
- Natural Resources Tour
- Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Open to Natural Resources CTE Programs
- Registration opens Monday, April 21, 2025.
Educators register groups of youth to attend these events. Please let your school know if you're interested in attending a tour! If your school is not attending, please email [email protected] to learn how to participate!
Paid Work Experiences
Summer Internships
Elevate Internships are available to current Lane County high school juniors and seniors. What makes our internships unique is that we find internship hosts based on the interests of our interns. Interns will begin with an internship orientation and a financial foundations course prior to starting their internship of 40 hours per week with a local company. The entire internship experience lasts seven weeks and totals approximately 220 hours of valuable hands-on experience and work-based learning.
Applications require one letter of recommendation. Those selected to move forward will participate in one interview before final interns are chosen. Limited spots are available so be sure to get your application in early and follow ALL steps to submit a complete application!
Connected Lane County is a county-wide organization that strives to ensure all student experiences are designed equitably. Paid internships are highly sought after in our region, and with limited spots available, our selection process aims to ensure we have representation from all 16 school districts, applicants who are currently juniors and seniors, equitable representation of BIPOC and white students, and gender identities.
Applications for our 2025 Summer Internships have now closed. The experience will take place between June 24 - August 27.
Elevate Events
Career Expo
Our Career Expo, hosted each fall, offers middle school students the chance to explore local professions through interactive, hands-on activities with professionals from local companies. Pre-lessons for educators will be sent in advance.
This event is for 8th-graders.
2024 Career Expo: Tuesday, November 5 - Thursday, November 7, 2024
codeORcreate
This year, we've merged codeORcreate and marketingJAM into one exciting weekend competition, celebrating all things creative and innovative. This annual three-day event, open to teams of up to five youths, invites Lane County High School students and Lane Community College students to dive into the worlds of coding, website design, graphic design, game development, marketing, branding, and business. Participation is free, offering a unique opportunity to explore and showcase your skills in a collaborative, hands-on environment.
2024 codeORcreate: Friday, December 13-Sunday, December 15
Hiring Fair
Each spring, our Hiring Fair connects graduating seniors and 16-24-year-old youth (regardless of enrollment status) to local job openings in high-wage, high-demand career fields. Numerous local companies with open entry-level positions join us for this event.
View the 2025 Hiring Fair Web Page for more info.
This event is for graduating seniors and youth from our Navigate program.
2025 Hiring Fair: Thursday, May 8, 2025
Youth Resources
Learn about local industries and career options by reviewing our pathway documents. Get to know Connected Lane County by watching videos on our YouTube channel! And visit our job board for youth to find a local job!
Looking for a Job?
Check out our youth job board where we share local entry-level positions.