Vanessa Martin was taking cybersecurity classes at City Colleges of Chicago’s Wilbur Wright College last year when her school invited her to apply for a new summer internship in the University of Chicago’s IT Services department. After working in retail management at Aldi for the previous decade, the North Austin resident worried she didn’t have enough IT experience to attempt such a big professional shift.
“I was like, ‘I just started, I don’t think I can get this.’ I didn’t have a lot of knowledge,” Martin said. “And my oldest daughter was like, ‘Mom, just give it a shot. Try it, you have nothing to lose.’ So, I sent my resume in, the interview went really well, and I received an offer letter to start the internship.”
The University’s Information Assurance team within IT Services was so impressed with Martin’s work, what was supposed to be a six-week internship grew into a year-long apprenticeship. This spring, Martin was offered a full-time role as an assistant risk analyst at the University.
Martin is one of several City Colleges (CCC) student interns who has forged a unique career opportunity and professional network in IT through the internship program IT Services developed with support from CCC and UChicago’s Office of Civic Engagement and one of two interns-turned-apprentices to secure a job with UChicago so far. As part of a broader Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions to strengthen STEM education and career opportunities and create a more diverse field of professionals entering the sciences, the IT internship aims to carve new pathways for CCC students and connect UChicago to new, underrepresented talent.
“A lot of people don’t get opportunities if they don’t have the network, or the social capital, or a certain background—what we really strive to do is provide opportunity and access for students who might not necessarily have it,” Connie Rutledge, CCC’s director of workforce partnership development, said.
Information assurance is a lesser-known aspect of cybersecurity, but one that Martin and her UChicago team found she excelled at once she started her internship. Despite her initial worries, Martin’s professional background turned out to be a distinct asset.
“It’s one of those things that does really take time to learn and practice and I really appreciate the way Vanessa’s been asking great questions and thinking about our work with a critical eye based on her educational experience and the experience that she has working as a manager in a retail setting,” Jessica Sandy; an IT Services Governance, Risk, and Compliance Manager and Vanessa’s supervisor; said. “Her experience brings a whole different aspect to thinking about risk and vendors, and we wouldn’t necessarily have had that perspective on the team without her. I’m grateful for her willingness to share her knowledge with us.”
Yaritza Lopez, another Wilbur Wright student and UChicago IT intern-turned-apprentice who lives in the city’s Portage Park neighborhood, is now working part-time in IT Services’ Project Management Office and will start in a full-time role when she completes her degree this summer. Project management is also not typically what people think of when they think of IT or cybersecurity.
“I want our students understanding that there are so many options for them outside of CCC, and I think UChicago provides that by providing a variety of IT roles, it’s not just one thing,” Rutledge said. “It’s just a matter of how do we get students to understand that there are so many options out there that students are just not aware about because they might not be in the spaces to hear about these needs or they’re not in the spaces to hear about who’s hiring and what they are hiring for?”
Lopez had never considered project management as an area of work she wanted to pursue but her internship experience has revealed it as part of a new potential career trajectory. Most recently working as a paralegal, Lopez is now helping her UChicago team implement a centralized IT work intake tool across the University.
“Without this partnership that [UChicago and CCC] have, I think it would have been really hard for me to get an internship with UChicago,” Lopez said. “I feel like it’s a really nice straight path to a job that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to.”
This summer, the program expanded to six CCC interns and several additional UChicago units—including the Biological Sciences Division, the Physical Sciences Division, the Social Sciences Division, and others—are in talks with CCC to potentially launch their own joint internship or apprenticeship programs with IT Services’ serving as a model.
“It’s not a matter of whether or not people want to do it, it’s a matter of figuring out the logistics and I think that’s always the hard part. But I think that folks at UChicago are always willing to do the hard work which is really refreshing,” Rutledge said. Externally, too, Rutledge says, UChicago’s work with CCC is inspiring other local organizations to rethink the way they recruit and hire, especially when it comes to local candidates.
“UChicago aren’t only internal champions of this work but they’re really sharing what they’re doing and getting other employers excited about what’s happening there,” she said. “So other people are going to really think about ‘How can we do what UChicago is doing?’ and I think that’s started the spark in a lot of conversations we’ve been having.”
Martin says she continues to learn from her colleagues and gets more comfortable speaking IT language daily.
“This has been an amazing opportunity and I hope the partnership with the University continues because a lot of students will benefit,” she said. “It opens doors for students. Once you graduate, you’re kind of like where do I go from here? And an internship is something where it gives you that knowledge to be able to step into a different role, so I think that has been a great thing.”
