Great Opportunities!

7 September 2008

            I'm an ACS alum, I was just checking out your website and newsletter. I would be more than happy to share my story with current students. Also, I have a great opportunity for some LACS high school students to intern this year at local businesses. I work at the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and have been here for one year, currently 60% of my job is Administrative Aide for the Internship Coordinator. We have recently received a grant through the New York State Department of Labor, the grant is called Student Internship Opportunities Initiative. The grant has funded the operation and administration of the program which is staffed by one full time Internship Coordinator and myself.

The purpose of the grant is to work with for-profit businesses to create internship opportunities for high school and undergraduate students. The grant’s main focus is to provide students with real world experience in a field they are interested in, while also exposing them to the many opportunities in Upstate New York. Currently the Upstate New York region is seeing the “brain drain” not only from the baby boomers retiring but also from the young professionals who leave the area. Our hope is that this program will show students the many professional opportunities in Upstate New York and that some may decide to live and work here after graduation.

The Student Internship Opportunities Initiative is a different kind of internship program which provides a unique experience for every student. One of the main differences between our program and others is our cooperative learning agreement. This agreement is developed by the student, mentor/supervisor, Internship Coordinator and when applicable, the school advisor. The agreement outlines each party’s expectations for the internship, the learning outcomes for the student and the business outcomes. The learning outcomes are developed with the student so that each internship is tailored to the students own personal interests and professional goals. The Internship Coordinator will check in regularly with all involved parties to insure that the goals are being met and that there are no problems. In any case where they may be problems the Coordinator will act as a mediator and advisor to all involved parties.

Our internships are developed in two separate ways. The first is when businesses come to us with a need for an intern. The second is when a student comes to us in search of a particular learning experience. When this happens we work with businesses in the area to create that opportunity. Every internship differs, some will be project based and others will be general positions within the organization. In some cases we may have a group of interns working on a single project or just working for the same company. Each internship offers a level of responsibility and independent oversight that students may have a hard time finding elsewhere. To give a few examples, one intern will be solely responsible for developing and managing a radio station website, another will be responsible for developing a marketing campaign, while others will work on preparing real estate listings and marketing materials on a daily basis. These are phenomenal opportunities.

All of our internships are fully paid for by the businesses, some will pay minimum wage and others will pay much more. Another exciting aspect of our internships is that many of our businesses are interested in testing alternate work locations, with some businesses allowing for up to 90% of the work to be completed remotely. This is a great chance for busy students, and those without transportation to participate in an internship.

Each internship will be a minimum of six weeks; however the six weeks do not have to be consecutive. The internships can start and end at any time throughout the year; they can be over semester breaks, during the summer or during the semester. In order to meet our requirements for the grant, each internship will be a minimum of ten hours a week.

All information on our program, our available positions and inquiry forms for both students and businesses will be available on the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce website in the coming weeks. We are very excited about the opportunities we can provide to both students and businesses and hope that you are as well. Please refer any students you believe would be interested in our program to myself, Alta Logan, Administrative Assistant, or Jessica Myers, Internship Coordinator. We have a number of internships available already in many different fields and I would love to work with LACS students. I had a couple of internships while I was a student at ACS, I had a great experience and I hope to assist with creating some great opportunities for LACS students today.

Sincerely,

   Jessica Myers

   Program Coordinator

    Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce

    904 East Shore Drive

    Ithaca, NY 14850

    607-273-7080

    Fax: 607-272-7617

    www.tompkinschamber.org