More and more Palo Alto College students are participating in summer internship programs. It seems that students are giving up the `lazy days of summer' for the `fast track to employment.'

"Students need to be proactive in gaining experience in as many new areas as possible," said Loran Gierhart, Chair of the Math Department and Assistant Professor at Palo Alto. "One of the great difficulties, which we all face when we wish to make a change in our lives, is that to get that new job or position is overcoming the question, `Do you have any experience?' You need to have experience to get the job, but the job requires experience."

Now students have the opportunity to gain the experience necessary to make themselves more marketable. Students are passing up summer jobs working as lifeguards, camp counselors and babysitters for career-oriented summer jobs and/or internships. These students are looking to add to their resumes so that they are able to get into the school of their choice or land the dream job they have been waiting for.

"It (an internship) looks very good on your resume when you're interviewing," said Selim Sabillon, a former Palo Alto student, who participated in an internship program at Cornell University and now works for Exxon. "It gives you an advantage over other students that have had none. And, it gave me a clear picture of what I wanted to do and boost my desire to keep studying and getting good grades."

In today's competitive job market, there is a race to be better or more qualified than the next person. Summer internships are providing students the experience necessary to make them more qualified than the person sitting next to them.

"One way you can demonstrate your adaptability is show that you have been willing in the past to make significant changes in your life without encountering serious difficulties,"

said Gierhart. "You need to demonstrate that you did take on a new challenge and were successful."

It has been estimated that more than 80 percent of new college graduates have interned at least once while in school.

If you don't believe that there has been an explosion of summer internship opportunities, then just go surfing on the World Wide Web. Type "summer internships" into any search engine and see how many sites you find. There are thousands of opportunities out there, in whatever field you are interested in.

Another advantage of participating in an internship program is that you will not only come out with some much-needed experience, but many times you will come out with a network of contacts to use in the future. These contacts can be helpful in getting a job, for use as a reference or as a future employer.

Companies also benefit from the use of summer internships. They get the opportunity to "test drive" future employees, thus saving money in the future by weeding out employees who are not the quality of employee they are looking for.

Students, however, benefit from this "test drive" as well. Students get the opportunity to experience what a job at a certain company will be like and whether the job or company is what they hope to pursue in their future.

"[Students get] some experience and a network to help them, plus they have those connections," said Fermin Ortiz, an Assistant Math Professor at Palo Alto. "They can relate what they are learning in the classroom and how they apply it in the real world experience."

Just remember a few things: "It is a competitive employment world out there. You must be aggressive in seeking out opportunities," said Gierhart. "These internships may well be your key to opening the door to a world of which the student has no present knowledge.”

Gierhart also said that students must plan ahead. Many of these internships have application deadlines. If you find that you are late or way behind the timeline for application, don't discard the internship at this point--just start the process of applying for it for the following year.

“Don't fear rejection,” said Gierhart. “[An internship] will occur. Just keep on applying."