Remember when you were young and needed to get your first job, but in order to get that job, you had to have work experience? It’s a catch-22 but maybe you were lucky in that your parent’s boss allowed you to work a few hours in their office, your neighbor taught you the basics of accounting or how to code, or you had an older sibling vouch for you at their place of employment. Unfortunately, not every young person has access to those opportunities or connections. Gaining experience is a dilemma that all who are new to the workforce face, but the gap is often wider for some than others. If you are an employer, you can help address this issue by offering work-based learning opportunities like internships to youth.

Not only do internships provide a great opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience, but they also offer several other benefits that cannot be achieved anywhere else. Internships help build confidence, expand a student’s network, make new connections and discoveries, and overall, help them gain the skills they need to become successful, hardworking adults. The University of California, Santa Cruz is seeking employers to partner with the university to host students through the Graduating and Advancing New American Scholars (GANAS) Career Internship Program.

What is the GANAS Career Internship Program?

The GANAS Career Internship Program is part of an HSI grant initiative that places underrepresented, low-income, and/or Latinx/e/a/o students in paid internships situated in one of the six high-demand fields of:

• Accounting/Finance

• Agriculture

• Bio-tech

• Education/Teaching

• Health

• STEM 

Benefits of participating in the GANAS Career Internship Program as an internship site are:

• GANAS Career Staff manage the marketing of internship positions and support students with their application materials

• GANAS Career Staff provide all participating interns with professional development and coaching in career readiness and financial literacy

 Program requirements for an internship site include:

• Host a student intern for 10-12 hours per week during the full 24-25 academic year, and compensate the intern directly at a rate of at least $16 per hour (or an equivalent stipend)

• Meet with the student at least once per week for a check-in

• Complete two, 10-minute assessments on the student intern’s career growth

Please submit this interest form if you would like to be notified when the Winter 2024 internship site recruitment begins! You can also view our website here and our past intern cohort here.

Want to participate in one of UCSC’s career fairs?

Career Success at UC Santa Cruz is excited to announce their Fall 2023 recruiting season! They are hosting several career fair programming events that will provide ample recruiting and networking opportunities with top UC Santa Cruz professional talent. To learn more about the fairs visit UCSC's Fair Page.