FEATURE
SJSU and the City of San José Continue Partnership with New Internship Agreement
By Rhoda Shapiro
With each passing year, the partnership between San José State and the City of San José continues to evolve.
In July 2023, SJSU and the City of San José signed a university organization agreement (UOA) that would allow students to intern with the city for academic credit. This is the first time that the university has had a blanket agreement across all departments in the city.
At present, the City of San José has 6,600 full-time equivalent employees, along with over 800 vacancies they’re trying to fill.
“Given the current vacancies at the city, we’ve been asking ourselves how we can get creative in where we recruit from,” says Randi Perry, the program manager for the workforce learning and development team at the City of San José. “What better way can we do that than to reach across the street to San José State?”
Internships offer a professional work experience outside of a normal classroom environment, allowing students a chance to delve into career exploration.
“Several years ago, San José State expressed interest that we should have this kind of agreement for the whole city so that students could earn academic credit from any department,” says Perry.
Prior to this new agreement, SJSU has had long-standing agreements with two different departments within the City of San José — the San José Public Library and Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services. Both those agreements were limited in scope and could only be offered to interns with specific majors that applied to both of those departments.
Now, however, the new agreement opens the door to students from all different majors who wish to pursue internships for credit with various departments across the city. Whether a student is majoring in public health, computer science, early childhood education, or biology, chances are they can find a department to intern with, while receiving academic credit, within the City of San José.
“The people I worked with in the City of San José really appreciated what I contributed and made me feel like a member of the team.”
— Scott Karoly
San José City Manager Jennifer Maguire (second from right) with SJSU students at the Explore Careers event in March 2024. Photo courtesy of the City of San José.
Partnership between city and university
Currently, there are roughly 100 interns working with the City of San José — and a vast majority of them are San José State students.
Although the new academic credit program is in its early days, there are a couple of SJSU students already taking advantage of it. One Spartan works in the city manager’s office, and another works in the planning, building and code enforcement department.
In order to get academic credit for an internship, a student must have a particular course they’re taking that applies to the internship they’re pursuing. The student, a supervisor from the City and the faculty member from the course must all sign off on the agreement. During the internship, the supervisor oversees the student to ensure they are meeting the agreed-upon benchmarks.
Andrea Tully is assistant director for the Center for Community Learning and Leadership at SJSU. She has been a part of the effort to secure this agreement with the City of San José for the past several years. She feels this is a win for both the university and the city.
“We’ve had occupational therapy service-learning students working with the City of San José for years,” says Tully. “Last year, Industrial and Systems Engineering service-learning students used their analytic and data programming skills to analyze City's data provided by the Direct Discharge Trash Control Program. Some students went on to work for the City’s environmental services department.”
Under the new program, engineering students could pursue this project as interns, while receiving academic credit.
Internships lead to other possibilities
Some students who’ve interned for the City of San José have gone on to receive job offers.
Scott Karoly, ’23 MA Urban Planning, was an intern for San José’s Department of Transportation during his time at SJSU.
“The people I worked with in the City of San José really appreciated what I contributed and made me feel like a member of the team,” says Karoly. “And it was great that so many people on the floor I worked on were actually SJSU alumni.”
Karoly got a job offer from the City of San José, and last December he went to work as a transportation specialist.
“I feel lucky to have gotten a job there,” he says.
Arielle Lew, ’23 Business Administration, ’24 MA Business Administration, worked as a marketing intern for the HR department at the City of San José during her entire time as an undergraduate.
“It was a great introduction to a professional work culture, and a nice change of pace from a classroom setting to a professional work environment,” says Lew.
“My internship was a great introduction to a professional work culture, and a nice change of pace from a classroom setting to a professional work environment.”
— Arielle Lew
Nurturing a career pipeline
Currently, the City of San José is working to reach out and inspire local residents to consider working for them. Part of those efforts include building up their internship programs in any way they can.
The workforce learning and development team at the City has been working to create a community of interns. They also plan quarterly events for interns to network and focus on job skills, where they learn things like how to interview or put a resume together.
“Our pipeline is from kindergarten to people in graduate programs,” says Perry.
For two years in a row, SJSU’s Career Center and the City of San José have partnered to host an Explore Careers event, where students can come to City Hall and learn more about the internships and careers opportunities. The event has been a hit among students, and there are plans to continue to host it every year.
“This is a college to career pipeline,” says Tully. “This partnership is a way for our students to get their foot in the door and start a career.”
Oftentimes, when someone thinks about working for a city, they think about certain positions, like a mayor or police officer. However, the City of San José actually hires people for a variety of positions, such as engineers, zoologists, veterinarians, biologists and dispatchers.
Soraya Ahmadyar, a senior analyst who is also part of the workforce learning and development team at the City of San José, wants more people to understand just how vast the opportunities at the city truly are.
“We’re trying to attract the next generation and engage with them. The priority is to connect with them in college and plant the seeds during those phases; so that they know great job opportunities aren’t just in the private sector,” says Ahmadyar. “The public sector has these amazing opportunities as well.”
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Top photo, left to right: SJSU Career Experiences Lead Laura Anderson, SJSU Associate Vice President of Health, Wellness and Student Services Catherine Voss Plaxton; Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Mari Fuentes-Martin; San José Mayor Matt Mahan; San José City Manager Jennifer Maguire; SJSU Associate Director of Career Education Anita Manuel; and Workforce Learning and Development Senior Analyst Soraya Ahmadyar of the City of San José. Top photo courtesy of the City of San José.
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