This summer multiple students have gotten the chance to experience working in occupations around the county.

The Summer Work Enrichment Program sponsored by District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon and the Warren County Board of Supervisors has given students the opportunity to apply and interview for a summer internship in Vicksburg. Selmon said the goal is for the students to blend in with the employees at the office by learning how to talk to people and what is expected of them in a professional work environment.

“The purpose is to enrich understanding of county government and give them real world experience,” he said.

Students are placed in county jobs and do not apply for a specific office to work in for the summer. The district attorney’s office was given two interns this summer to help employees around the workplace.

Nathaniel Smart, a student at Mississippi State University, said he wanted to gain experience in a professional work environment while also being able to earn some extra spending money.

The interns get paid $7.80 an hour for their 30-hour work week that typically runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Vicksburg High School senior Kynsley Jones said she is using the money she has earned to pay for school items so she can save her mom some money.

Being an attorney is probably not in the plans for either of these interns with Jones looking to get into teaching and Smart majoring in communications, but that doesn’t mean their time in the DA’s office has been useless.

“You can learn about something you are not going to be in, and we have learned a lot since we’ve been here. It’s fascinating,” Smart said, adding he didn’t know all the work and especially organization that went into being a district attorney before his time in the office.

He has learned a lot of patience, organization and time management this summer. Some of the main tasks the interns are responsible for completing are filing documents, keeping organized, helping with discoveries, typing and answering the phones.

“They’re doing a great job,” investigator Chris Lockridge said, commenting on how respectful and willing the student interns have been. “They’ve worked above and beyond our expectations.”

Warren County Emergency Management and the permit office also received two interns this summer. Emergency management director John Elfer said the students get a lot out of their time in the workforce while the students get projects done that have fallen to the wayside throughout the year.

“You get to expose young people to issues dealing with the general public. They get to experience something that they may not have ever thought of before, and they get to see how local government runs,” he said.

Alcorn State University sophomore Jyra White and University of Mississippi junior Kristen Buchanan have helped file papers and make copies.

During her time in the program, White has learned there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the services provided by the office and employees often take  training courses to be prepared.

Buchanan said she also wasn’t completely aware of the responsibilities of the office until she began her internship.

“I didn’t necessarily know you had to go through this office with emergencies,” she said. “I didn’t know it existed for the things that it does until I started working down here.”

White said she participated in the internship last year in a different office and decided to come back for a second year.

“I like the experience, and I’d like to do it again,” she said.

The program started June 13 and will finish July 22.