Top5 Tips for Internship Seekers

I'm Tara Thurber, Director of Talent Innovation, and joining me today to discuss their Top5 Tips for Internship Seekers is Shadae McDaniel, Vice President City Leader and Steve Berry, Assistant Director of Development from the All Stars Project. For those of you out there that don't know about the

All Stars Project. They were founded in 1981 as a 501 C3 national nonprofit that uses a performance based approach to help 10s of 1000s of inner city youth and their families to create success in their lives. Hey, Steve. Hey, Shadae. Thanks for joining us today.

And as someone who grew up as a dancer, and love performing, I really understood the transformation that took place when people performed together. But I was never able to like put it in words. When I went to this, like this conference at the All Stars was hosting this after school development conference. And they talked about it and young people talked about it. And our founders talked about it. I was like, this is like where I'm supposed to spend my life. I

could feel it. And it's really been just you know, my feet haven't touched the ground since then. And then it gets to work with amazing people like Steve who also loves performing in his own way.

approach. I know you've been in rock bands, and you're a big improviser. I have a long history of improv and teaching young kids. And even at a senior care facility, I just love improv in the developmental aspects of it. Because I think it's just it's been so profoundly impactful in my life.

And all of a sudden, I you know, my cousin started to introduce me to to All Stars and started to come to events started to become a donor, I then, you know, got on the phones, as a volunteer, it's one of those things you're like, this is something that's really different. That really works, and it gets in your blood, and you're like, there's nothing like it. There's not there's not like a college course, or some

kind of after school thing. I mean, which is exactly what we are as after school programs. But how we use development really aligned with who I am as a human being.

with every year. So been a great, been a great four years, and we're just super excited at what the next 5,10,15, and 20 plus and more it's going to be like so, again, thanks for having us on.

amazing! And my kids are like, Mom, why are you roaring like a lion, and I'm like, Ah, don't worry about it.

Stars Project. I'm trying to make those minimal, minor connections, and just kind of let it go and see what happens. But it's what you guys are doing is amazing. And I'm so excited that we get to be a part of it as well.

there. They not only performed in new ways, but they performed as the ushers the, you know, ticket collectors, the backstage crew, the TV, AV, they did all these things, and different walks of life, all different multiracial communities came out supported our young people, our founders were serious about a multiracial movement. And that's really how our programs got, you know, created, we created a talent show, which is this amazing, you know, grassroots organizing talent show in print

Cities program. And then we created development school for youth, which is this amazing connection between young people and the corporate world and giving young people the opportunity to perform professionally with business partners. And Operation

performance. We transform the lives of youth and poor, and underserved communities in partnership with caring adults. And that gives everybody the opportunity to grow, which is what you talked about earlier, about how you do came out and grew from just by way of our work together.

And I noticed that and absolutely blown away with some of the young people that I've spoken to and listened and, you know, I I was like, Man, I wish I was just that. I want to say confident but in, I don't know if that's the right word, because some of these students that I've spoken to and young people, at first, they're a little shy. But once they open up, I feel like I'm talking to just a colleague of mine, or, and they really bring their energy to the table. And I think

that that's so important. And they show up authentic. And I'm a big believer of showing up as genuine and authentic as you possibly can. To be the best that you can be.

performance does. Because what we're really noticing a lot of times our kids are performing in new ways, they're trying something on for size, they actually don't know what the heck they're doing. They're probably terrified, honestly, talking to you and others. And what's really cool is that our work allows them to recognize that they have a whole support system, so they can fail softly, they can fail, make mistakes, and then we're gonna we're gonna

support them through it. And then that allows them to take risk and get outside of their comfort zone. And then when they tap into the performance, or this idea of improv, there's no wrong or right way to do anything in performance. It's there's no moral, you know, compass in that it really is you're just trying on new things. And with you, they get to rehearse these lines, they rehearse these scripts, and it comes off as confidence. And

don't get me wrong. When you rehearse it enough, you become more confident.

questions to ask. I was just like, okay, let's just whoever can help me, I'll accept that help. But our kids, they they know, they've like leaped past that so quickly through the power of performance. And I think it's just a beautiful thing.

that's amazing. I just it really, yeah!

even have to be in school. So with that being said, we're going to get young people from all over, um, who are impacted by poverty at different levels, and it looks different to many people. The biggest, you know, I would say, idea around that is that we accept ordinary kids, we don't we're not looking for the best and the brightest, umm just regular kids that want to grow. And that's, that's our criteria

to get into the program. We they come through an interview, and we asked them, hey, do you want to grow and build community you want to develop? And they say, Yes. All right, this is what it means. This is what it looks like. Um, so that's how they come into our program. Now, as you pointed out, kids are at all different levels of their development, right. And what we do to that to that end is, we relate to them a head taller, that is just like, it doesn't

matter where you are. So if you're a young person who is comfortable speaking in public, we're going to relate to a head taller and say, Okay, what would it look like for you to, you know, speak at orientation to a bunch of business people, like, we're gonna relate to everybody just a head taller than where they're at. And that's a serious and important developmental opportunity for young people to be able to see something and then act on it. Um, we also support young people to make

mistakes. I mean, we're one of the only organizations when you talk to kids, in their experience that you there's a whole little party that goes on, when people make a mistake, like a whole room stops, we clap, we

cheer that person on. And it's too often now young people that come from inner cities, they're not supported to make mistakes, because a lot of the mistakes that they can make can really change the entire trajectory of their life, the entire like, a young person, and more affluent community can make the same mistake and be supported through it, come out and be above it, and not have impact their lives

at all. Our kids grow up a lot of times feeling the pressure of having to get it all right, had to work twice as hard to do the same things. So when they come to us, we support them to make mistakes, because we realize that that's one of the only ways they're going to go out there and take risk, and do new things. And then another thing we do to help support their goals is we set demands, pretty

high standards. It's so funny, we have school systems all the time, you know, guidance counselor's that would have called me back up and say, Hey, I think that, you know, you're not lenient enough on Jessie, there are only there are only 10 minutes late, they can't make it to you in time, if they leave the school at three o'clock, then you need to give them more

time or you need to give. And we're like, no, if we set if we set a standard, and they go to reach it, then we know that they can, and then they know that they can do more things. Too often, our school systems, especially in inner city communities, push our kids along and push them out into the world. And then they're not ready for the demands of the world. They get culture shock when they go to college or anything like that. So we are setting our demands, and our standards high from the get go.

And so believe it or not, we have over a 95% retention rate and graduation rate. So it just proves like our kids can go through and do amazing things once they're supported to do so. And once you believe in them, you know, I'm so we see this all the time. We hear from our young people and our supporters about the success that this has had on their lives. I know Steve has a story he want to share with you really quick.

Coming through acting school and whatnot, one of the things that you learn very much and it's very driven home is that is what it what does it for you if you need to be sad. And as seen if you need to get angry in a scene, if you need to sustain you know, one emotion for a long time. What does that look like? And so you learn your different learning styles. And that's done through performance, right? You can't just read a book and learn your style, you actually have to

get in there. And one of the things that All Stars does is you get in there as a young person you get in there professionally, you can get in there with acting. If you want to do a monologue at a talent show. You certainly can do that. But in terms of the development school for you, you know, our professional develop program for young, young people. We do that

in a professional setting. So that young people can learn what their style is by interacting with people who oftentimes don't look like them don't aren't from the same area that they're from didn't have the same upbringing. But little by little through doing performances each week, with our preferred caring adults and volunteers, they get to know what their style is, they get to know who they are, they get to think about what their goals are, and then take that home.

And then the next week, see some of the same people or different people, and then impact upon what they've learned. Because like she was saying, a lot of kids from the inner city, they're not getting pushed, they're just getting moved along without really any kind of Did you learn anything? Tell me something you learned? No, just just get them through, get them to the end, wherever that is. Here. Your kids are being pushed to say like, what did you learn?

What did you think about from last week, you did a conversations and resumes workshop, which, which comes before a resumes workshop, so we get the conversation going, so that when it comes around to a resumes workshop, someone even with no experience real job experience, can learn through the partnership with a caring adult that you know what? You've been doing your mom's and your sister's hair and your brother's hair, you've been doing hair for like four years and you can get paid for that!

That's actually a job.

take yourself seriously. And again, this gets back into the agency piece, where kids are thinking with intention, about their lives. And I think that's what makes this very special, and much different than just a jobs program, or an education program with a goal to graduate. You know, that's not our goal, our goal is to get kids to, to have opportunities and to be able to act upon them. So, yeah.

an open worldview, if you you're not able to relate to others?

our programs. So about six years ago, we started in on a process with our Vice President of Research, Dr. Bonnie Gildan, and the Southern Methodist University, their, their core program, which is, which focuses on on statistics to figure out, what can we measure about development that's different than anything else in education?

world. And those eight dimensions fit into one of those three categories. Right. But those are the broad categories of what development actually is. And it's been an amazing process. There's been over 700 young people over the last five years that have taken surveys, both before the program during the program, and then after the program to measure in these eight dimensions, where they both rank themselves, but also the staff members and caring adults that are part of the program also measure the

individual. So we have two different sets of data. And spoiler alert, works, right? We saw measurable impacts everywhere. And because this is with heavy scientific rigor, this this process has been done. We're now in a process of basically just making it into like a neat package so that we can understand exactly what we're looking at. Because one of the important things about what All Stars does is all this stuff that we learn, we spend money doing it, we spend time doing

it, but it's free. We want every afterschool development organization to be able to use these tools so that they too can measure the effectiveness of their programs, because one of the things that we do see is, you know, I'm a fundraiser, so I'm thinking about how can we get more people to fund our work so that we can continue to increase our impacts, right? A lot of times organizations want to know, how does it work, and so you give them well, four to five as an increase. So there

you go. Because what we've been working on, and has been very successful for 40 years is, is just the anecdotes getting in front of our kids. So we know that works like that our kids say, this is amazing, this is better than anything else. But that's been one of the biggest challenges that we're now we've

solved for. And we're excited in the next probably two to three months, we'll be launching the report about the SMU findings, which we're super excited about, it will be transformative, not just for us, but we feel like we have to school development movement in general, our thought leader, and that's nice.

their life blood doing it. But you don't see the impact right away from our kids, right, because they performed in a show or they painted, you know, animals on on a canvas, you don't know how that changed their life in the next five years, or when they went because we don't have the resources to

track them. So we had to create new tools to measure the innovation of human development that we were that we were undertaking, and I'm just so proud of, if I was to say, one of the most, you know, impactful experiences of being a part of the All Stars, is the fact that we're industry leaders in the after school development space, we are so open to giving away all of our understanding all of our knowledge, and making sure that we really do give black and brown kids access to the

mainstream America give people the opportunity to connect, it's, it's really just, it's just very benevolent.

working with businesses? What type of partnerships do you encourage and when you're looking at businesses doesn't matter? What types of businesses or where they're located?

our anchor partners. But really, to me drilling all of it down, even though I'm a fundraiser, it's volunteerism is the big key, you know, those are the big partnerships that we see because oftentimes, we see, volunteerism, just then moves people along into getting their corporations involved with internships, and then eventually they understand that we're 100% privately funded organization and so everybody does their best to you know, to effectively kick in what they can to help us you

know, keep the lights on and keep the programs growing and keep the impacts you know, going so we can keep teams out on the streets, keep our program staff you know, just well supported to be able to do what they can do.

You know, we're so fortunate to have such great New Jersey support you know, from organizations like PSEG, Onyx Equities, and Investors Bank just to give a couple shout out to some of our partners, but also nationally, you know, organizations that are here in Jersey but also nationally like RBC Capital Markets, EY, and PwC. You know, these are some of our anchor partners that provide hundreds of internships and millions of dollars to the work

that we're doing. But also hundreds of volunteers every year, because again, you're thinking about this performance aspect that is just so important to me and to our young people, we need adults, we need volunteers to come in and share their lives, share their stories with our young people, you know, so in terms of partnerships, you know, that's, that's, that's kind of where where we are, and where you would encourage anybody who believes in what we believe in, to come on board,

you know, be a part of, you know, a development coach session for a six week, you know, program or just come to an event and just talk to a young person, right, those are the types of things that we really appreciate. And things have changed, of course, because of the pandemic.

connected. And that they, they create relationships with people outside of their neighborhood, that was their number one, like, Oh, my God, I feel isolated, I feel like world is ending for me and my family, I need to figure out ways to connect with people outside of the city I live in and we created a pilot to see if that would work. It did more than work.

It is now an official national program, the All Stars because we got to connect kids like what Steve was saying to people in Paris and Toronto, and, and you know, young people in New York, we're talking to leaders in Chicago, and you should hear the connections that were made the young people who said, you know, this person helped me with my personal statement to get into college that I'm now enrolled into. And young people are saying I'm now our surveys, we give them surveys at the end.

And they're saying that they're going to stay connected to their coach way after the six week program. So imagine that taking place during the time where everybody's isolated, but also there's this huge social crisis going on at the same time, where black and brown kids and people feel are feeling more disconnected than ever, right?

What the All Stars really was able to do is connect different types of people to come together, which really is part of a social justice, you know, awareness that we've been doing for 40 years, but a lot of companies and organizations and partners came to us saying, I want to feel more connected to the black and brown communities, I want to do something I want to give back I want to, I want to

be the change I want to see. So by creating relationships, and building relationships with people from different cities, who, again, don't look like them, and come from different places, really gives people an opportunity to become more intimate with each other and to build like real lasting relationships that I think are culture changing and transformational for, for America period. So it's just been amazing. And we're gonna keep, we're gonna keep that going.

And, you know, even when I've spoken to a couple of the young people, it there, there was hope there was like that sparkle in their eyes were just being able to open up doors to communication and, you know, even just coming from my end of the screen, it felt like it wasn't just being a part of a six week program. I strongly feel I will continue to connect

with these young people. And I got an email that, you know, schools finally out and I've picked the college and, and I'm like, Great, let's talk I can't wait to hear about how your summers going. You know, so.

do it. But at the same time, like, I was able to learn a lot. And I was taught from these young people just as much as they've turned around and learned from myself and people that they've been connected with.

the world. Truly unique about our internship program, it has very little to do with learning job skills, or having job skills. It has very little to do with, you know, getting young people ready for corporate world and trying to get them into jobs. It's not a job training program.

But what it what it really is all about, we already kind of talked about it a little bit, is giving young people and adults the environment to build relationships, get to know more about what it's like to be in places and go in and talk to people that you typically don't talk to what it's like to try on this new performance, what it's like to learn about what you don't like to do. You know, a lot of times people say to us, what are your kids interested in? I'm like, they don't know.

They have no idea what they are interested in. Their they'd haven't explored the world, you know, what we want to do is give them an opportunity to learn about all the different things that are out there. You know, there's so many young people, I mean, I can give you a list. There's so many young people who have come to me and say, I want to go into nursing, or I want to be a lawyer. I mean, it's things that they either see on TV or that their parents have done or

whatever. And we make sure we put them in something totally different. Really do a great. I know a kid right now. I put her a couple years ago, she started probably when she was 16. She was interested in nursing. I put her at UI and her first year she came back she goes I had no idea this this even existed. I didnt know, I like numbers. I didn't know I can do this. Can I tell you that? She started her first official full time job this summer. And you know?

And really, at the end, I'm hoping that they can create success in our lives by way of being able to make choices, yeah, able to say like, I know what this means, if I do error, or how to navigate life. Moreover, um, you know, through their experiences, so we've done that we've, during the pandemic, we piloted virtual internship program last year, this year, we are, we're killing it, because we're now twice as much as we

did last year. About 200 place interns, and we're learning a lot about what it means to do it in a virtual setting, it's fair too, while young people are still making these amazing life changing connections, we're also getting a deeper look into, you know, what it means to be growing up poor in certain places.

What the digital digital divide, is something that, oh, my goodness, we knew existed, but now it's like, this is really how it is like, this is how, you know, disparaging it is for so many different types of people. So our organizations have been stepping up with, you know, technology and learning how to, you know, support them through equipment and other conversations we got, you know, we're doing things in shorter, shorter stints of shorter hours. But yeah, it's it's been

extremely successful. And I can't wait to see, you know, what young people say about this summer's internship program, as we're coming, you know, out of COVID knock on wood.

through your own self. And seeing that that's what you guys are giving these young kids opportunities for is just, it's such an exciting, such an exciting path, such an exciting adventure for them to really be able to try different things. And it's something I think for businesses too, to open up their eyes differently as well bringing in a young person for an internship and realizing, you know, okay, I'm not bringing in an intern just to work on this.

It's let's open up the floor to the company, let's open up the floor to all levels.

Um, she talked about how she was going, you know, she had to go to her Dean, she's, she's, she's a student at Rutgers. And she's like, I needed support, I needed to ask them to, you know, postpone my, my review, I wanted to ask them one minute, she's like, and I was terrified, and I want to talk to anybody. And I was just in a really dark place and, and she just recalls all of these like, attributes of

performance. And she was like, and I had to be a bigger person for my little brother, and I had to tell him what it was gonna be like, and I was like, I don't even know what it was gonna be like, but I just, I kind of made something up and went for it. And, you know, in a way, we pretended to get through it and she said him by doing that performance. She got through it because she believed it.

She got support from her her Dean Her teacher to postpone a couple of things and to, you know, postpone her her next semester to come home and help her mom. Anyway, long story short, she just talked about performing her life. Yeah. And that navagating the hardest parts of her life. Just with a whole, yes. And attitude, a whole like, this really, really stinks. I'm really sad about this. And what do I need to move forward? How

can I build with what I have. So this year, I'm happy to share that we've offered her another internship as a returning alum. And she's just offering guidance and leadership to all of her, you know, her peers in this way. And just, she's just an illustration of what it means to perform your life and to use improv to get through obstacles and challenges. But that resonates with me all the time. Every time I, I get like, down and out, I'm like, Oh my God, this cuz it's hard work.

opportunity in them. And, you know, maybe I do get to perform when I didn't even think I was performing. You know, but I love that story and where it's brought her to and and I'm sure there's tons and tons of stories out there just being connected with the All Stars Project.

the bills with your passion. So I like the more modern aspect of that if I find something you like to do, and then find also what you're better than most and see where they intersect. But also in terms of the head taller thing because you know, I like rock and roll they always say in rock and roll terms you say fake it till you make it right kind of a shorthand for but perform a head taller is definitely our All Stars language for you can do more than you think you can. So go do it.

are a little you know, dim. But you know, you got to find you got to find offers and in all situations and circumstances and then find out how you build on that. How do you create from all the offers and that happens, you know, when your boss or somebody tells you, you know, or your friend says, hey, there's a job here in this industry, you don't really like that industry, you're like, what is that?

You're what there's offers in that there's something to find out about what you don't like, and then building with those things as well. So another thing is, be bridge builders look for look for opportunities to build relationships, look for opportunities to connect people, to other people, to connect with other people yourself.

of every route. Yeah, route is like, you know, I think All Starts right like, you know, don't perform as a knower being a knower is this like, it's like the end of your development, you know, you want to do you want to be developing until the end of your life, you know, not only way, one of the main ways to do that is to stay curious about everything, um, and create ensembles everywhere, create, you know, connections and, and a support group everywhere you go find ensembles, and build them

everywhere. So that's, this is our, that's our top five.

doing. And so it's it's funny talking about top five tips for the internship seekers, I've been working with a lot of young people right now that are nervous, they don't know what to do. And they just I'm like, but you got to start somewhere, I've always been the one just you don't worry about the final picture, throw the dots out, it'll all start to connect

eventually. But if you're throwing stuff out there that you want, or believe in or like or don't like, eventually your picture is going to be formed.

we're all looking for. So for you know, just to share that, again, about curiosity, being curious about yourself about the world about job, the job markets about what your friends and families do. What again, person on the street is on the bus next year, he's flipping through a book or something, ask them about that. Ask her about that. Ask them about that. You know, just be curious. Yeah.

and for individuals. And it's an opportunity for maybe somebody internally to show what they might be good at, by bringing it by organizing an internship, or, like, it just offers and collaboration between different

departments. Like there's just I'm finding that there's so many different opportunities and and pluses with building an internship program internally, or providing an opportunity to have an internship, an intern, or a couple of interns come in for a month or two, to just get the lay of the land and grow from that. I mean, I feel like the biggest one is just if you're a company that's trying to be innovative, and and be, you know, on the forefront. Well, where where does it start?

It starts with our young people, because our young people are coming right back in right behind us and pushing us forward to.

don't have the access at all. I mean, there's plenty of internship providers that have internship interns who come from their families, so like, their sons, their nieces and their daughters, in turn, they're or they come from these programs that the colleges have kind of put them on a pedestal, and they're saying that these kids are most likely to be great, and finance, those are important

too. But I would say the top the top five tips for companies who want to sponsor internships to literally have the responsibility of communities, and to be citizens of the world. They have to be interested in being a change maker and you know, a social agent, somebody these companies have to say, I'm dedicated to creating a better world.

And focus on the internship should be more about relations really should be relational, it needs to be about our best practices we found is that internships that introduce young people to all different types of people in the organization, all different levels, and all different titles have more success in their internship experience, making sure that young people have exposure to different departments. So like a rotating schedule, versus like

staying with one person. Um, another internship sponsor, I would say is important is treat young people, especially those who come from inner cities, the same way you treat your colleagues.

about the job skills part. Don't worry, I think a lot of times our companies get bogged down in like, I want to create like the perfect skill building experience for our kids. And if they don't know how to do Excel by the time they leave here. I'm just I don't know, if I did a good job and skills are being learned when you invite them to the meeting that they found out, they can't sleep or slouch chat.

You know, that is a huge skill, you know, the skill of our young people, and we train them for internship prep sessions, because we take them through a process before they come to you is, you know that you're at your desk for eight hours, it's actually really hard to stay awake. Yes, the fact that adults do it, it's a trained thing. It's not like natural. It's hard kids, sometimes by lunchtime, they're like, Oh, my gosh, how do you?

How can I stay awake, or, you know, I had a situation where kids don't know that, you know, you can't eat and talk on your phone at lunchtime at your desk, that's in, you know, with other people big open space or something. It was lunchtime, I clocked out, I'm done, that professional performance will take you a long way. Because a lot of times, our young people go out into the world with their knowledge of how things are, which is usually on TV or whatever. And they get into the

workspace. And then you have the employers are like, what the heck is wrong with this kid, you know, and then all these types of biases get formed about the kid, like the kid doesn't really want to work here, the kid doesn't know, you know, like all these things, when really they

just don't know. So given the internship sponsors can really give a space where social skills and the professional performance, this place is where we perform like this, this is what happens when we come here, without the bias without the morality with just good old fashioned, like, let's try on a new performance here that can go such a long way. But they have to be interested in being corporate citizens, they have to be interested in changing the

world. I think that corporations have a huge responsibility in this thing called, you know, life.

they're about. And you can do that at www.stars.org you can similarly Call me if, if you're listening to this and 973-856-6698 happy to take any calls about requests for volunteerism or corporate support or getting bought getting involved with our, our internship program. So yeah, that's a great way to good, good place to start. Perfect, and when we do post the podcast as well, we'll make sure to get that information in our creative and our social posts.

And we'll send everything over to you guys as well so that you guys can post that out too.