A record-breaking 36 HRA students completed internships and attended leadership conferences during summer 2025, embodying the curiosity and dedication that Hampton Roads Academy strives to cultivate in every Navigator. In the process, these students gained first-hand exposure to career fields that will help guide their professional trajectories through their college years and beyond.
Our ambitious students’ experiences spanned a wide range of fields, from health and environmental sciences, applied technology, and mathematics to the visual arts, musical performance, and global studies. By interning in hospitals, conducting research in university labs, engaging with the fine arts community, and exploring work in government and public policy, HRA’s future leaders gained insight into how their education could be put into practice in the real world.
This year’s summer interns were:
The REACH Initiative: Extending an HRA Education and Charting Future Paths
These students’ pre-professional opportunities were made possible by HRA’s REACH (Real-world Experience and Academic Choice) Initiative. Directed by Upper School science teacher Dr. Maribel Gendreau, this program reflects the Academy’s commitment to ensuring that its classroom curricula are closely linked to practical experiences whenever possible. Through the internships, mentorships, part-time jobs, and real-world leadership roles it coordinates for Upper School students, the REACH Initiative equips Navigators with the skills that are in highest demand in the professional world of the twenty-first century, including creative thinking, collaboration, and effective communication. The development of these skills begins in the classroom, but students hone and apply them through meaningful work experiences beyond HRA’s campus.
Indira Hartke ’27 works in the lab while participating in the Duke University Pre-College Program in Chemical Toxicology
As Gendreau explained, “Internships let students explore their interests and see what it’s really like to work in the field.” Offering opportunities in five areas—applied science and technology, health sciences, global studies, environmental studies and outdoor leadership, and the fine arts—the REACH Initiative allows students to explore their passions and learn what careers align with them.
According to Assistant Head of School and Director of Upper School Ben Rous, the benefit of these experiences is twofold: students not only discover “possibilities for careers that they had never considered,” but also “come back to school with a reinvigorated sense of engagement with their classes.”
Rous added that the REACH Initiative’s internships, mentorships, and professional shadowing opportunities directly set HRA students up for success in college. “Their eagerness and excitement about learning beyond the classroom are traits professors respond to,” he said, “and it is often that our alumni are partnering with their professors—as freshmen, no less—in research projects, the publishing of professional papers, and similar work.”
“This vision to seek and find resources and professional opportunities,” Rous noted, “is a gift that will continue to serve them well for the entirety of their professional lives.”
Hands-On Learning
Embracing this gift, each of the Academy’s 2025 summer interns has displayed undeniable professional initiative and enthusiasm for learning. The experiences through which they pursued their passions are as diverse as they are impressive.
Zachary Patten ’26 on site at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia
Zachary Patten ’26, an aspiring computer programmer, explored some of the most challenging and inspiring applications of his chosen discipline through NASA’s Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) program, an immersive space research experience in which students are mentored by NASA experts and gain insight into careers in the aerospace industry. During an intensive week-long summer academy at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Patten interacted with experienced astronauts and aerospace engineering consultants and collaborated with other students to plan a crewed mission to Mars. As his team’s mass and power budget analyst, he played a vital role in ensuring that their instrumentation and resource allocation met both scientific and mission transit requirements.
“I learned how to work together in a group better than ever before,” Patten said. “We had to work together every step of the way.”
As he prepares to embark on a course of study in computer science in college, Patten also hopes to return to VASTS as an intern to facilitate enriching learning experiences for future high schoolers.
Ellen Owen ’26, meanwhile, laid an incredible foundation for a career as a working artist by interning with Carolee Vitaletti, a local painter whose boldly colorful Colonial Williamsburg scenes and animal paintings are displayed throughout the area and sell worldwide. Working alongside Vitaletti allowed Owen to ask the artist questions about her career path and observe her interactions with customers while assisting with the day-to-day operations of her studio and sketching a composition for a client.
An original sketch for a client completed by Ellen Owen ’26 while interning with professional artist Carolee Vitaletti
Owen explained that this internship and other REACH opportunities have helped her understand how she can build an education into a career in the arts. “I learned the importance of a unique style, consistency, hard work, and connections with others,” she said. Her pre-professional activities have inspired her to take more art classes and to study illustration or graphic design in college, following her mentor’s example.
Like Owen, Carys Casper ’26 used her summer experiences through the REACH Initiative to learn what types of work that have captured her imagination at HRA look like beyond the walls of a classroom. Having completed a multitude of lab activities in her science courses, she has developed a strong interest in pursuing laboratory research in the life sciences as an occupation.
This summer, she took her first steps in this field through the CNU Summer Scholars Program. Serving as a research assistant for Kathryn Cole, associate professor of chemistry at Christopher Newport University, and undergraduate researcher Lauren Jarrett, Casper helped prepare solutions, grow bacteria, and create crystallization plates for a project to understand the structure of a mutant polysaccharide deacetylase enzyme, with an eye toward developing an antibiotic for anthrax. When her mentors’ work hit a roadblock, she played an important part in researching options to get the study back on track.
Carys Casper ’26 teaches summer campers at VIMS how to examine samples under the microscope
As she obtained a deeper understanding of scientific research by actively contributing to it, Casper also learned a number of important lessons from her mentor that she can apply at the university level, from using multiple protein databases to seeking out research opportunities.
During her busy summer, Casper also explored work in the life sciences by serving for the third time as a counselor for a summer camp offered by the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Overseeing a program to introduce rising ninth graders to environmental stewardship and the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, she gained teaching experience while broadening her own knowledge of marine science.
Above all, Navigators’ summer experiences have imbued them with the drive to pursue similar applied learning and professionalization opportunities in the future. As Casper explained, “being a part of the REACH program keeps you dedicated to your interests and prevents you from falling short of your potential.” HRA is proud to inspire its students to strive for excellence—not only in school, but throughout their lives.
