Student Interns had their time to shine on Wednesday, July 26 at the Tony Rand Student Center on the Fayetteville Technical Community College campus at the Cumberland County School’s  ICON Intern Showcase. 

A total of 70 current and former Cumberland County high school students gathered to network and to show the results of the past month of work as interns across a multitude of industries. 

The students were participants of the ICON Summer Internship Program which allows Cumberland County high school students ages 16 and up to apply and interview to work in paid positions. 

The work-based learning program is an educational approach utilizing the workplace to provide students with the competencies and skills that allow them to connect school experiences to real-life work activities through career exploration, exposure to the real workplace, and achievement of work readiness skills.

E.E. Smith graduate and ICON Intern Briyana Tillman was able to get experience with Blue Ridge Power. With plans to enter the STEM field, Tillman shared that her experience as an office manager intern helped her see all aspects of the power industry which she originally hadn't considered. 

“Something that shocked me is how much variety goes into that one field. Like you would think a solar power construction company only maybe deals with people who are engineers, people who build the solar panels, but there's really so much more that goes into a company in general. So we had people who worked in finance, people who worked in HR, people who worked in [public] relations, people that were engineers coming in. I really got to work with almost every field that you could think of. I didn't know that a solar power company would need all those different components,” shared Tillman. 

The Expo included time set aside for networking between students and businesses, a panel discussion which allowed business owners and businesses to share their experiences participating in the latest round of internships and the official ICON showcase where the students were able to give presentations on their work with informational boards, videos and other media. 

“We want to promote our program, promote our students, but also let them learn about career and technical education. We harp on four year degrees and going to college, but there's a lot of other options for students,” said Sara Bandurraga, High School to Work Coordinator for Cumberland County Schools. “We want to make sure that they're aware of all the businesses that we have here available.They don’t have to go to Raleigh or go to Charlotte, we have opportunities here in Fayetteville. I think that's the whole purpose of showing, ‘Hey, you have businesses that are meaningful, that you can earn a good wage in.’ We want to keep them here.”

Bandurraga shared that the goal is always to increase the number of participants for both students and businesses in the coming year. 

Sign ups for students for next year’s program will begin in February, 2024. 

Currently, the ICON program is open for businesses to ask questions and receive information on the program who may want to participate in the program next year. You can request information online here. 

“It’s probably the best thing you can do for yourself over the summer. Everything that it provides you with, it provides you with a different skill set, it provides you with money, it provides you with experience and it also provides you with networking skills,” shared Tillman. “The amount of benefits that come with being an ICON intern are endless. There's nothing really negative, but there's no reason why you shouldn't become an intern.” 

Tillman will be going to Winston Salem State University in the fall of 2023 and plans to major in Biology and minor in finance. She also added that she is grateful for the experience and for everything she was able to work with to make her internship possible.