Key Points

• High school students are gaining experience in technical career fields this summer at Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s El Paso, Texas, refinery.
• The Ysleta Independent School District coordinated internships across four of the refinery’s departments.
• The students are from the district’s Career and Technical Education program, which emphasizes gaining technological capabilities and trade skills that are in high demand. 

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Educators in El Paso, Texas, are helping high school students get experience with technical professions this summer that they might not have gained any other way. The Ysleta Independent School District’s (YISD) Career and Technical Education (CTE) program coordinated five internships with Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s (MPC) El Paso refinery.

“We have a lot of work for them. It is exciting to see the students grow over the eight-week period,” said the refinery’s Human Resources Director Tommy Skinner. “The plan is to give them a sense of what it’s like to be a professional at Marathon.”

With an emphasis on safety, students are supporting the refinery’s operations, information technology, maintenance and environmental departments. The internships reflect the refinery’s ongoing support of the district’s CTE program. It offers training with professional-grade equipment to help students gain technological capabilities and trade skills that are in high demand. 

“Through meaningful collaboration with local employers like Marathon, our CTE programs bridge the gap between academic learning and professional practice,” YISD’s CTE Workplace Learning Coordinator Cecy De La O said. “They equip students to step confidently into internships and build lasting careers.”

The five MPC interns are among about 30 YISD students with internships in the local area this summer. In May, the district celebrated all the students with a Career Signing Day ceremony during which they signed formal letters of intent to commit to their internships.

“It is extremely important to get a feel for what you want to do before you dedicate your life to any specific career field,” said Skinner. “A lot of what these students will experience this summer will help prepare them to make decisions about their futures.”