Smart interns look beyond summer

Darrell Ayers had some bright ideas when he worked as an intern at the Kennedy Center 18 years ago.

He worked in public relations for some of the Kennedy Center’s workshops. While doing that, he realized the performing arts center still used old-fashioned pen and paper to register people for music and theater workshops. So he wrote a simple computer program that could keep track of names easily.

It was smart. It was innovative. And it got him hired a month after his internship.

"They called me after I had left and said, ‘You know, you were such a good intern here, we’d like you to apply for the position,’ " said Ayers, 47, who is now vice president for education at the Kennedy Center.

Ayers’s experience is what other interns dream about. The internship is increasingly becoming a tryout for entry-level positions rather than just a summer job.

By The Washington Post

Full Story: http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2005/07/01/news_business/business.4.txt