Walsh and his friends learned most of their software-programming skills at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax, Va., and got their jobs with Evolve after winning a contest that the company sponsored last spring. Many students in New York got their internships through the New York New Media Association, a nonprofit group designed to provide professional services to local Internet companies. The group started its internship program last year, directing technologically proficient students to Silicon Alley companies. It has placed nearly 80 students this summer. One company that has taken advantage of the program is Doubleclick, an online advertising firm.
People know they can walk across the street and get another job at the competition in an hour.
And an additional bonus of several thousand dollars may land in their laps by the end of the summer. One such student is Ariye Shater, a graduate of the High School of Telecommunications, Arts and Technology, in Brooklyn. Shater was offered a full-time job at a company in Forest Hills, Media Linx, after working there last summer. My parents weren't happy about it. They were relieved, he said, when he chose to go to college at the State University of New York at Stonybrook.