Student internships are more than a steppingstone. These experiences are a powerful, collaborative approach to supporting the future workforce and strengthening business in Arizona.
For students, internships transform classroom learning into hands-on experience, preparing them for life beyond high school. Businesses gain fresh perspectives, connect with emerging talent, and strengthen the talent pipeline.
In collaboration with Highway 85 Productions, we’re taking you inside an ElevateEdAZ facilitated internship that shows how powerful industry-education partnerships are, for students and employers alike.
Meet the Student Intern
Sunny Tran
IT/Cybersecurity, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Student
LED Tech Intern, Highway 85 Productions
Student Perspective
Before your internship, what did you think working in this industry would be like? How did that change after your experience?
Before my internship, I thought working with LED technology would be meticulous, require a great deal of attention to detail, and test my capacity for curiosity. After my experience, I found that everything I assumed would be true about LED technology lived up to my expectations, but the part that was different from my expectations was how much I came to enjoy it all.
I have always been a very detail-oriented person. While it’s what I excel at passively, working at Highway 85 Productions felt like the first time I got to truly apply that skill and be recognized for it. For every “what” I was given, I would ask three more “why’s,” because I wanted to get a real understanding of the deeper intricacies and apply them in a way that was meaningful to me, not just do what I was told because my boss said so.
What is one skill you gained that you know will help you in school, college, or your future career?
One skill I gained that I know will help me in my future, be it my academic career or my professional career, is staying curious, and more specifically, being coachable. To me, before I began as an intern at Highway 85, LED technology felt far out of my scope – anyone who works in technology can tell you that different roles will often overlap and blend together often, but I couldn’t ever picture how my path in software could possibly cross with LED technology, and that’s exactly why I applied to Highway 85 Productions.
I wanted to challenge myself by stepping out of my comfort zone and learning about technology I had never even touched before with LED tiles. This internship taught me how to try, fail, ASK, and try again, and I think that’s a skill a lot of people don’t realize is extremely valuable to have. In terms of hard skills, my mentor knew I had absolutely no knowledge when it came to dealing with LED technology, but showing him that I was eager to learn, willing to fail, and malleable gave him the patience to teach me the expertise I have now. I feel positive that this kind of curiosity is a skill I’ll get to carry with me for the rest of my life too, not just my professional career.
Can you describe a moment when you felt trusted or treated like a real member of the team?
When I first started here, my mentor gave me a long list of every task he did regularly, then asked me to mark off what I either wanted to see more of, loved, or hated. Rather than just a rehashed version of his job description, it also included things like “picking up all the cigarettes in the parking lot first thing in the morning”, or “changing the toilet paper and paper towels in the bathroom”, so it gave me a real picture of what a day at Highway 85 Productions looked like for him.
The point of this activity was to get a better idea of what I enjoy and amplify my learning experience. He ultimately wanted me to be able to take away something of value from this internship that wasn’t just, “looks good on a resume”, and that made me feel very seen and thought of. I’ve journaled every single day that I’ve worked at Highway 85, and my entry for that day reads, “My interests being taken into such careful consideration makes me excited for everything I will get to learn from this internship. I feel like I can really benefit from Joe’s mentorship.” I still agree with that 8 months later.
How did this internship influence your confidence or clarity about your career path?
After taking on this internship, I feel more sure than ever about my career path in cybersecurity. With one focused chiefly on software, and the other in hardware, I knew that LED technology never aligned with my career goals 1:1, but it still unquestionably reinforced what I was sure I wanted as a career through the transferable skills I gained. Cybersecurity always appealed to me because I enjoyed troubleshooting, trial and error, and the thrill of fast-paced, puzzle-solving work, and while I didn’t realize it before, LED technology included every single one of these aspects in its work as well. Getting to apply myself and experience those facets in a real-world setting reminded me of how excited I am to continue following my career path.
What advice would you give to a business considering hosting a student intern?
Your student intern will be as excited about the internship as you are, meaning it goes a long way to show them you actually care about both them and the work they’re doing. At the end of each week, tell them what you liked seeing from them, what you wanted to see more, and any other advice or notes you have for them. That way, they know what they’re doing right, and where they could be doing better. Adding onto that, make sure you ask them what notes they have for you. It’s important for you to acknowledge that having a student intern gives you both room to learn and grow from each other.
What would you say to another employer who is unsure whether hosting an intern is worth it?
New ideas and an extra set of hands from an intern genuinely excited to learn can make a world of change if you have the patience and matched enthusiasm to teach them. For myself as an intern, I can never stop asking questions until I can get behind the “why” of things, and while my thoroughness might have seemed redundant to someone else, there were multiple occasions where my inquisitiveness allowed my mentor to recognize his own gaps in knowledge, and when we got our answers, it built passion for things my mentor otherwise did every day without thinking and rapport that wasn’t there before. If you want a fresh perspective, hosting an intern is worth it.
Meet the Employer
Joe Anderson, Director of Technology
Highway 85 Productions
Three years of partnership with ElevateEdAZ
Joe’s department has hosted interns in the last two school years.
Engagements include:
- Internships
- Guest speaker sessions
- Job shadows
- Educator externships
Business Perspective
What initially motivated your team to host a student intern?
My department is a small but rapidly growing piece of a small business. We’ve passed the point where the workload is too much for one person but haven’t necessarily hit the point where it’s enough to support a second full-time person. I also have limited direct management experience. Bringing in a student intern was a great way to add support to the department and help grow my leadership and management skills in a way that also worked for the business as a whole. Additionally, my career path has been pretty unique and as a result, I’m passionate about showing students that high school to college to lifetime career isn’t the only path.
How did the intern contribute to your team or operations, big or small?
Sunny was an incredible addition to the team. She came in every day enthusiastic and ready to tackle whatever was in store that day. Being able to teach her the niche work I do, show her just once or twice the correct way to do it, and then be able to hand in her tasks (and know they’d be done correctly) has made my life infinitely better.
What surprised you most about working with a student intern?
How quickly she’d pick up on things. Almost everything I’ve taught her we’ve gone through a time or two together, and then she’s been ready to do that same work mostly independently with just a question here and there.
How did this experience impact your team’s culture or leadership development?
As a department of one, it’s been nice not being on my own. As part of my role, I do a fair amount of traveling, so knowing someone else has been here “holding down the fort” has been huge. I do think it also helped improve both my communication and leadership skills.
What would you say to another employer who is unsure whether hosting an intern is worth it?
Hosting interns has been incredibly beneficial for our company and my department. There’s the obvious benefit of having an additional person complete the work that needs to be done, but it’s also helped me grow as a leader and helped improve my department’s processes.
ElevateEdAZ and the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation are seeking companies to engage with high schools by creating opportunities for students to apply academics through work-based learning.
Learn more here.