Perham High School, Perham Health Launch Hands-On Internships, Job-Shadow Program

Perham High School and Perham Health launched an ongoing partnership March 5, 2026 that places high-school students into internships, job-shadow opportunities and short-term placements designed to introduce them to careers in healthcare, Perham Focus and Perham-Dent Public Schools say. The program sends students through hands-on rotations at the local hospital, with explicit department experiences listed as patient care, lab work, administrative roles and imaging services.

One current participant, identified in school and news materials as senior Aryanna Myers, is serving as an intern at Perham Health. "It's been a great learning experience for me," Myers said. "I now have a clearer picture of my future career path." The Perham Focus and Perham-Dent Public Schools posts use the spelling Aryanna Myers; an image file in the Perham Focus material uses the alternate spelling Arianna, an inconsistency the sources do not reconcile.

Program materials describe the placements as more than observational visits, saying students are "rolling up their sleeves and experiencing firsthand what it’s like to work in one of our community’s most vital institutions," language appearing in Perham Focus coverage. Perham-Dent Public Schools adds that the internships give students opportunities to ask questions, shadow professionals, and "see what daily life looks like in a variety of healthcare roles."

Perham-Dent Public Schools expands the list of hospital careers students are exposed to, noting "a hospital isn’t just doctors and nurses — though those are certainly important — but also lab technicians, radiology staff, therapists, pharmacists, IT specialists, and countless others working behind the scenes." That phrasing appears on the school site and underscores the program’s stated purpose of broad career exposure within a single community health system.

Sources present one notable discrepancy on the facility where students rotate. Perham Focus and the summary report identify Perham Health as the partner where rotations occur, while Perham-Dent Public Schools contains a line saying "The internship program gives students the opportunity to rotate through different departments at Sanford." Both formulations appear in the available materials; the documents do not resolve which name correctly describes every placement.

The initiative arrives in a community context where Perham, in Otter Tail County, counts 3,512 residents by the 2020 census and promotes Perham-Dent Public Schools as "Home of the Yellowjackets," Tools Remaxnova community listings show. Tools Remaxnova also highlights other recent local education items tied to the district, including Principal Ehren Zimmerman receiving a Star of Innovation award and a regional CDL training partnership between Perham High School and Minnesota State.

Perham Focus and Perham-Dent Public Schools characterize the collaboration as an ongoing partnership. The published materials do not specify the total number of student participants, placement lengths, application or selection procedures, credit or stipend arrangements, or the Perham Health staff coordinating the program; those program details remain to be confirmed with school and hospital officials as the internship effort continues.