For Sacramento area students, internships aren't just for summer anymore
Call it the era of the internship.
UC Davis senior Nick Pappas works the phone last week as part of his unpaid internship for GOP Assemblyman Roger Niello of Fair Oaks. Pappas is hoping to land a yearlong internship with the Legislature.
With the down economy making it harder for students to get paid jobs – and intensifying their drive to be marketable – internships have become a ubiquitous part of the college experience. Both paid and unpaid, internships are not just for summer anymore. Students are doing them during the school year and increasingly even after they've graduated.
"I always saw myself moving into business after graduation, but with the financial collapse, it's become more of a distant dream," said Nick Pappas, a UC Davis senior who will graduate in June.
Instead, he's applied for the Capital Fellows program and hopes to land a yearlong internship with the Legislature.
It wouldn't be his first. Pappas is interning now in the office of Fair Oaks Assemblyman Roger Niello. He's also