A Summer of Opportunity for Plano Teens
For many teenagers, summer means days by the pool, a job scooping ice cream, or putting off summer homework until the last week of break. But for a group of ambitious teens in Plano, this summer has also meant career advancement. On National Intern Day, July 31, the city celebrated a milestone in its internship program, reaching more than 1,000 students placed in summer jobs to launch their careers, connect with Plano’s business community, and develop professional skills since the program was founded in 2014.
At a luncheon, the city recognized 87 high school students from the Plano Independent School District in the 12th cohort of the Plano Mayor’s Summer Internship Program. This initiative aims to prepare students for the workforce by bridging the gap between what they learn in classrooms and what they will face on the job. Hundreds of interns, business executives, and city leaders gathered in an event hall wearing business casual attire to celebrate the program’s decade of success.
Sarina Rahim interned this summer with the Plano Symphony Orchestra. The 17-year-old Plano East Senior High student wants to become an orthodontist but also hopes to earn a business minor in college after working in development and marketing at a local nonprofit. “Nowhere else are you going to be able to work directly with other adults in a professional environment … other than this program, as a high school student,” she said. “Other summers I would just be procrastinating SAT prep doing really nothing efficient.”
Rising Plano junior and senior high school students interview for and are placed in experiences across various fields, from marketing to music. Companies like PepsiCo and Samsung, as well as nonprofits like Meals on Wheels and Emily’s Place, host a teen for eight weeks. They gain work experience, soft skills, financial literacy, and job training. Students also get the chance to explore career paths, enhance their résumés, and learn how to interview.
This year, 44 employers hosted interns, and about 20 other partners helped sponsor the program, according to director Amber Zuckerman. The program was founded under former Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere, but current Mayor John Muns has led it since. He emphasized the strong partnership between the city, local business community, and school district, all pillars of Plano. He hopes students in the program will consider returning to Plano as the city grows.
Varsha Jhanak, who graduated from Plano East Senior High School this year, previously interned at Plano Magazine through the summer program. She said she’d be back “in a heartbeat.” “This experience has taught me that Plano is such a great city to live in because there’s so many different hubs here,” she said. “So definitely, when I am an adult, I’ll be coming back.”
All positions are paid, either by the company hiring the intern or a company underwriting a position for an intern placed at another business or nonprofit. The “earn and learn” opportunity pays a minimum of $13 an hour, 20 hours per week, with some earning more for up to 40 hours a week, according to Zuckerman.
Internships, especially paid ones, can be competitive as youths start their careers, and the road isn’t paved equally. According to data from a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, male students and white students who graduated in 2023 were more likely to have internships than other groups. Among men who took part in an internship, about 76% were paid, while among women taking part in internships, about 52% were paid. The association also found that students who take part in paid internships receive more job offers and have higher starting salaries than those who participate in unpaid internships.
Plano’s program seeks to level the playing field. This year, about 33% of hired interns either were in a college readiness program called Advancement via Individual Determination, which seeks to close opportunity gaps in education, qualified for free or reduced lunch, or were on track to become first-generation college students, according to Zuckerman.
Plano had 300 applicants for the program this year, and another 137 students were on a waitlist to be considered. The program coordinated 810 interviews in just five hours to help employers choose from the applicant pool. The program also helps connect nonprofits and talented young candidates. Marta Lilly, executive director of Hendrick Scholarship Foundation, said her nonprofit has hosted an intern through the program for years. The students have been a huge help to the small organization with only a handful of staff members.
“They have so much to teach us, and then we have stuff that we can teach them,” Lilly said. “They got projects done that are on our wish list that would otherwise not get done.” Lilly tries to emphasize teaching interns soft skills. A recent survey conducted by the General Assembly found that more than a quarter of vice presidents and directors would not consider hiring an entry-level employee, many citing a perceived lack of soft skills like communication, collaboration, and adaptability.
Daniel Sun has kept the soft skills he learned as a former intern at Montgomery Capital Advisers in 2017 and Ericsson in 2018. “The internships that I had weren’t just about building a resume, they were about discovering my passions, connecting with mentors, and learning what it takes to succeed in the professional world,” Sun said at an event earlier this year. He said the lessons he learned in his internships seemed trivial — like how to write an email. But those skills followed him throughout his career. After attending the University of Texas at Austin, he is now a cloud security engineer at Vanguard in Plano, returning to the city where the groundwork for his career began.
Local business leaders see the value in developing young leaders. “We moved our headquarters here because we knew the talent was strong,” said Michael Lawson, senior manager for Boeing Global Engagement. Boeing hosted six interns this summer. “This program demonstrates to the business community that we have a talented workforce that will continue to be here … as we try to lay down roots,” Lawson said.