Students Shine at IT Internships, Share Lessons
How did you spend your summer at age 16? ChiTech students, motivated by their career goals and armed with new connections, are spending the summer at jobs, paid internships, and conferences that interest them. We caught up with 2 students in particular, juniors Martha Zuniga and Chris Hayes, at their internships at CompTIA IT association.
Martha's job with membership services has her organizing data to help CompTIA's 2,700 members realize the full extent of their benefits. Chris works for the programming department, helping build an intranet for CompTIA's managers and employees.
Martha believes this opportunity is the perfect foundation for a career that merges her passions for art, fashion, and technology:
"It doesn't look like I stayed home all summer, which is important, because I really want to go to college. I don't just want a job, I want a career, something I can wake up and be like "oh, yes! I'm going to work," not like "no, I have to go to work."
Both students cite the organization's friendly, open culture as the best part of their job. "It's not like a father to son relationship, it's more like a brother to brother or brother to sister," says Chris, who works side-by-side with a college intern. "You don't feel like everyone's peering over your shoulder looking at what you're doing, they're just seeing how they can help you."
The interns' hard work has paid off, in the form of recognition and strong new bonds with co-workers. Colleen Hughes, CompTIA's Vice President of HR, says:
"Both Chris and Martha are so bright - it's wonderful to have them with us. Chris interned with us last summer also, and it's been great to see how he has matured and grown - he seems more confident and is really enjoying his time with us. Both of the students are doing very meaningful work which will have a lasting impact on our organization."
How can others Chris and Martha's age find meaningful summer work? As hard is it may be sometimes, embrace networking. Martha says working on her "elevator pitch" boosted her interview skills, and Chris landed his job by speaking to CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux about their common technology interests at various events over time.
Outside of CompTIA, several ChiTech students have found paid, skill-building work at various non-profits through the Youth Ready Chicago program. Lenelle Blackman, a junior, even leveraged his knowledge of technology to land a position at Greater Southwest Development Corporation refurbishing computers and teaching other high-schoolers about computers.
View the July 2011 newsletter here:
Summer Vacation the ChiTech Way