Daily Breeze: Carson Celebrates the Start of Its New Internship Program

Source: Daily Breeze

The Carson internship program, which offers students paid work opportunities within the municipal government, is poised to become an annual endeavor, city officials said on Tuesday night, March 19.

Carson held a ceremonial signing for the agreement between the city and Cal State Dominguez Hills during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“It’s a game-changer,” Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes said before presiding over the ceremonial signing alongside CSUDH President Thomas A. Parham.

“This initiative is not just about providing jobs, but it’s about nurturing the next generation of our leaders,” Davis-Holmes, a CSUDH alumna, added. “I’m looking forward to further partnership with Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, to continue what we started over four years ago.”

The program — which grew out of the Town and Gown Promise, a city and CSUDH partnership signed in 2021 — aims to fortify the city’s talent pool by providing paid internships across various city departments to graduating students.

The program received approval from the City Council in November, with an initial allocation of $100,000 to support interns throughout the 2023-24 academic year.

As part of the agreement, the city will pay the students $20 an hour for their work, with a cap of around 500 hours. Those who complete the maximum allotted hours stand to make around $10,000 for the academic year. The remaining funds are slated for equipment and an end-of-year celebration, according to a city report.

The first cohort, comprising seven interns, began working at the city on March 5, said Carson’s Innovation and Sustainability manager, Reata Kulcsar. Their internships will conclude in June. But city officials said they are considering increasing the budget for the program and expanding its duration so future cohorts can participate from September to June — about a full academic year.

The program will also likely continue on an annual basis instead of being a one-time endeavor, Deputy City Manager Tarik Rahmani said in an interview before the City Council meeting.

”Next month in April, we’re going to do a budget workshop for next fiscal year,” Rahmani said, “and I think there is a chance that this program will continue, but with enhancement. Like, we had about eight interns, (but) we may be going bigger next time.”

City staffers are also exploring the idea of potentially expanding the program to include public-private partnerships, he added.

“And we may also think about deploying the interns not only to the City Hall, but also some businesses in Carson,” Rahmani said, “so we can do a private-public partnership. So we are exploring that idea with the mayor and President Parham.”

The first cohort of students, flanked by city and university officials, celebrated their recent onboarding at Tuesday’s meeting. Among them was Joi Griffin, a senior majoring in psychology at CSUDH.

The 21-year-old, who interns in Carson’s human resources department, said she felt the experience aligns with her interests and allows her to pick up new skills.

“I like to get things done behind the scenes and make sure that everybody is heard and everybody’s problem is heard and nobody’s overlooked,” said Griffin, who received approval for her first project this week. “Nobody’s receiving more than the other departments.”

She said she is excited to be a part of the first cohort.

“We’re all like babies to this program, but we’re also growing together,” Griffin said. “I love that I’m a part of this journey with them and to be a part of the first cohort to start this program and then also to just be able to lead the pathway for others to follow behind us as well.”