Wouldn’t you like an INTERNSHIP?
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Internships are apprentice or trainee positions that provide practical experience in an
occupation.
They are a great way to explore many possible career fields without having to make a final
career decision or commit to an employer.
The experience and education you gain through an internship could make the difference
between getting the job, scholarship, or admission to the academic program that you want,
and not getting it.
An internship can also let you network within a field that interests you, provide you with
quality resumé material and on-the-job training and education, and give you the opportunity
to demonstrate your abilities to professionals who could then provide you with all-important
letters of recommendation.
Internships can vary a lot. They can be paid or volunteer positions, short- or long-term, offered
yearly or one time only, summer or semester-long or year-round, field work or office or lab work,
work study or separate from school, and they can be established or something that you create for
yourself.
To find an established internship, there are many places to look:
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Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) is a fund from the National Science
Foundation to universities and colleges across the whole United States in all the science
fields. Go to this link to begin your own research project in finding an internship that you
qualify for and are interested in: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm
Students majoring in fields relating to biochemistry can apply for the ACCESS Mini
Research Camp, or the Summer Research Institute. Students need to join the ACCESS
program. See Pam D’Arcey in the Biology Department.
NASA/Ames Community College Education Development Program (ACCEDP) offers
many internships specifically designed for community college students. Students work with
NASA researchers and scientists and other professionals in mission support roles. One
application puts students in the pool for all of the ACCEDP internships. Online application
at: http://accedp.usra.edu/. You can specify that you want an internship for summer only, or
want to be considered during the school year, too, if you can commute to San Jose and still
maintain 5 units at Cabrillo.
http://accedp.usra.edu/
UC, Santa Barbara has a program called INSET for all science, engineering, mathematics
majors that deals with research activities in nanoscience. Applications due by the end of
February. Weblink: http://csep.cnsi.ucsb.edu/cc/inset/howtoapply
UC, Davis has a two week internship in January for students who have applied for transfer
there and are majoring in as Biochemical or Biomedical Engineering, Biology, Biophysics,
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, etc. Deadline is November 30, 2012
http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/education/community-college/internship-communitycollege/program-details
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Stanford Summer HCOP is six-week academically intensive residential program that
provides a living and learning community for talented college sophomores and juniors who
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plan to pursue a career in medicine. Community college applicants welcomed. Feb 15
deadline for applications. http://coe.stanford.edu/pre-med/sshcop.html
You can also speak with instructors in your major classes for ideas. For instance, Granite
Construction often will have an internship opening each year for students in engineering.
Specific company web pages may have information about internships that are offered, if
there is a company you would like to work with. See the section about “Creating Your Own
Internship”
Internet Listings: There are things you can find by doing a web search on internships in
your field of interest. They change all the time, but can be a good source of ideas. Be
careful of some of the internet listings—there can be some good leads out there, but there
are also agencies that want to charge you $$ to help you locate an internship. You should
avoid these.
Activities That Can Prepare You for an Internship:
 You can make yourself a more viable candidate for internships by starting small. Look for
volunteer opportunities. The Cabrillo Student Employment website has a place with some
suggestions for volunteer or unpaid internship opportunities:
http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/jobs/v-opps.html
 Cabrillo’s Cooperative Work Experience Education program can also be an option. For ½-3
units you can work under the supervision of an instructor on a project that relates to the
Cabrillo Climate Action Plan, for instance. Contact Leslie Read for more information:
leread@cabrillo.edu.
 Work now on a personal essay that can be quickly modified to take advantage of
opportunities that arise suddenly. Start arranging for key faculty to write general letters of
recommendation for you to apply for an internship. Then they can also quickly modify it in
case something comes up with short notice. Get some unofficial transcripts to keep on hand.
Create a resume for yourself. Tailor your resume to be sure that it fully describes your
applicable skills, experience, and education. The Career Center has some helpful materials
to help you start putting your own resume together. It is a general guide, not specifically to
the math/science/engineering majors, so keep that in mind.
http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/jobs/pdfs/resume_guide.pdf
Creating your own internship takes some time and research. Contact someone who is doing
the work you’re interested in doing, or the company that person works for. Call professional
associations, or organizations or companies that interest you and ask them for a list of internships
and an application. Pick a company or organization that interests you, and be sure it has a
department that fits your needs. Learn about the company and the department, using newspapers,
magazines, and professional journals. Figure out who you need to contact and call, e-mail, or write
a letter outlining your interest in the company, your background and education, and your specific
ideas for your internship. Convince that person how helpful you could be to them, and how willing
you are to work and learn. Show off your knowledge of the company. Sometimes a short
conversation with someone is enough to either cement your interest or erase it completely!
Do not wait until the last minute! If you want a summer internship, start looking early—
typically in the fall semester. Even finding established internships takes time. If you are starting
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from scratch and inventing your own internship, the process will take even more time. Getting the
internship of your dreams requires knowing where to look and how to prepare for it. Getting that
knowledge can take a lot of time and a lot of research. There are opportunities out there that you
never knew existed, but you have to look for them.
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Here are some more internship ideas:
The National Parks Service Page (http://www.nps.gov/getinvolved/volunteer.htm)
The National Institutes of Health summer intern program
(http://www.nei.nih.gov/training/summer_intern.asp)
The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory’s life sciences & genomics division
(http://www.lbl.gov/Workplace/GD-LS-Diversity/internships.htm)
IBM Almaden Research Center (San Jose) summer internship opportunities
(www.almaden.ibm.com/st/info/studentopps/index.shtml)
Idealist.org, Action without Borders internships (click link on right of screen)
(www.idealist.org)
Summer Internships in Science and Technology for Minority Students (http://sist.fnal.gov)
NASA Lewis’ Educational and Collaborative Internship Program
(http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/education/LERCIP_GRC.html)
US Department of Agriculture internship opportunities
(http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=INTERN_SCHOLAR)
The Student Conservation Association conservation internships
(http://www.thesca.org/serve/internships)
Summer programs in the neurological sciences (www.ninds.nih.gov/jobs_and_training/summer)
Summer programs in the “Big Ten” schools (www.cic.uiuc.edu)
Recently Added:
(Civil Engr.) GraniteRock (http://www.graniterock.com/careers/graniterock_intern_programs.html)
(CS/CIS) Plantronics (Santa Cruz, CA) offers opportunities to work on audio technologies that are
transforming the way people communicate. Internships are usually listed at the beginning of the
year. Students should create a profile on the Plantronics Employment site to see all listed jobs and
internships. Here is the link. All the due dates will be on the site. 37 internships in the summer and
2000 applicants – very competitive! Jeremy Jones is one of the recruiters at Plantronics
(Jeremy.Jones@Plantronics.com), suggests that students have an account with a current resume on
LinkedIn. Every student should have a cover letter that rocks! Those get read before the resume.
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(STEM) US Department of Energy – Summer Internship
(http://fossil.energy.gov/education/lelandfellowships/)
(STEM) U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) - Summer
Research Team Program: Summer research opportunities will be awarded to qualified faculty
members and students to work on collaborative research of mutual interest to the team, the DHS
Center and DHS. Faculty members and students must be at an eligible institution in a discipline,
major or concentration directly related to a homeland security science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (HS-STEM) research area listed at
(http://www.orau.gov/dhseducation/faculty/index.html)
(STEM) U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - Summer Internship Program:
10-week summer internship program for students majoring in homeland security related science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines.
(http://www.orau.gov/dhseducation/internships/index.html)
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Personal Statement Prompts
Use these questions to form the basis of an effective general-purpose personal statement that you can quickly modify to
suit many purposes: internships, scholarships, even applications to transfer universities. Write a few sentences or a
paragraph in response to each question, and then string these together to make your first draft. Be sure to get outside
review for readability, language structure, spelling, punctuation and general effectiveness.
1. Describe your educational goals and your professionals goals, too, if you have decided on them at this point.
2. What influenced you in your choice(s)? Is there a story or interesting detail here?
3. What progress have you made so far? Include coursework or other relevant experiences.
4. What have been some of your challenges or obstacles you have encountered so far? Pick one, or two. (Some ideas to
get you thinking: inefficient or poor study habits, a lot of demands from family, financial obligations, working too many
hours outside school, weak background in high school, trying to take too many heavy courses at once, not
understanding how to make the most of working in a group, need for better time management skills, being the first
generation in your family to be attending college, etc.)
5. What have you done to meet those challenges and overcome those obstacles?
6. What other challenges do you expect may come up in the process of achieving your goals?
7. How do you think you might meet these future challenges?
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