At Liberty Prairie Farm, the bees remain in their hives during winter, but at Grayslake Community High School District 127, preparations are already underway for the next season of its Beekeeper Internship. This program offers students a unique opportunity to manage their own beehives as part of a hands-on learning experience.
Jeff Miller, Career and Technical Education teacher and director at Liberty Prairie Farm, explained the process: “Winter is when the planning happens. The bees are surviving the cold, and we’re repairing equipment, reviewing hive data, and getting ready for the next season. Soon, we’ll select the next interns to take on that responsibility.”
The internship is limited to two students each year due to available resources. It runs mainly during summer break and ends before classes resume. Each intern is assigned a hive and is responsible for monitoring its health and productivity. They collaborate with each other but must individually oversee their colonies.
Weekly sessions involve inspecting hive health, monitoring queen activity and larvae development, evaluating honey production, and suggesting interventions if problems arise. Interns begin by learning proper use of protective gear before moving on to practical tasks such as pulling frames from hives and making management decisions.
“It’s real responsibility,” said Miller. “They’re not observing, they’re doing.”
The program also introduces students to business concepts by having them track costs, maintenance expenses, honey sales through spreadsheets, discuss marketing strategies, and see how products reach customers. Honey harvested from Liberty Prairie Farm is sold both onsite and at the Dunn Museum gift shop as part of an exhibit on pollinators; interns help extract and bottle this honey.
Miller described it as a partnership between classroom learning and community involvement: “It’s biology, agriculture, and business all working together.”
Preparations continue throughout winter with equipment repairs and planning ahead for summer harvests. As spring nears, Miller will interview candidates for the 2026 internship; current participants may return while new applicants interested in agriculture or entrepreneurship are encouraged to apply.
Grayslake Community High School District 127 serves Lake County with schools including Grayslake Central High School and Grayslake North High School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). The district enrolled 2,762 students in grades nine through twelve during the 2019-2020 school year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In terms of diversity according to state data: 58.5 percent of students are White; 25 percent Hispanic; 7.2 percent Asian; 4.3 percent Black (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
The district employs 195 teachers earning an average salary of $79,647 per year before pension contributions (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). Teacher attendance remains high with no educators recording more than ten absences annually.
Spending per student was $31,874 in 2020 totaling over $88 million across the district (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). Chronic truancy affected about 4.3 percent—or 119—of enrolled students that year which is less than half the statewide average rate (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
Miller summed up the spirit behind programs like this: “At Grayslake District 127 we empower all learners to launch their futures through relevant engaging authentic learning—and sometimes that learning begins with a single hive.”
