Community college student interns currently working in the Information Technologies and Services Division are (from left) Toby Logan, Irina White, Jonathan Dy, Wei Du-Griffiths and Art Pierce. Photos by Robert Couto, TEID.

After a 20-year period in which she raised a son, danced ballet, wrote drama and fiction, authored economic policy papers outlining steps to opening up the Chinese economy, and worked for an international company, Wei Du-Griffiths was looking for another challenge.

So she applied for an internship with the LBL Network Group in the Information Technologies and Services Division. The step, she says, was an extension of her studies and job at the College of Alameda, where she was also a member of the networking group.

"There are new questions and new problems here," Du-Griffiths said, "and you just have to figure out how to do it. The experience is really helpful."

Another challenge for her is balancing her 20 hours a week at the Lab with her 24 units of classes and being a mom to her 13-year-old. Fortunately, she's used to being busy - while studying physics and math, she self-taught herself well enough to earn multiple certifications from Microsoft and Cisco.

Du-Griffiths is one of five interns from Bay Area community colleges who began working at the Lab in January. She met Gayle Peuser, head of the Mac/PC Support Group, at a Women's Career Day at the College of Alameda. Peuser told Du-Griffiths about the Lab's paid internship program and encouraged her to apply. She's the first intern to work in networking here and is now helping to upgrade switches, troubleshoot problems and help design systems.

Du-Griffiths and four other student interns are working 20 hours a week at LBNL under the School-to-Career Intern Program in ITSD, an occupational work experience opportunity for community college students. The program is a cooperative effort between the Lab, community college staff and students to place students in a structured, supervised and meaningful work experience related to the students' field of study. Students earn college credit for their work. Now in its fourth year, the program has brought eight interns to the Lab, five of whom have continued working here. Many of the students already had four-year degrees, but had returned to a community college to learn new skills.

Toby Logan heard about the program from Perry Lau, a classmate who was also an intern at the Lab and who was later hired as a computer systems engineer. "He told me it was a good program," Logan said.

Logan, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the State University of New York, Albany, has almost completed his associate's degree in computer science at the College of Alameda. He had been working for a technology firm in Emeryville and is now a member of the Mac/PC Support Group. One of his main projects is to research the viability of open-source programs as alternatives to Microsoft applications. He also helps fix computers. Logan is interested in a career in network administration and security, an offshoot of the five years he spent as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army.

"Berkeley Lab has a lot of different organizations and is complex, even down to its geography," he said. "With so many software programs and projects, you get a wide breadth of experience. The work that one does and the experience here will serve one well in almost any organization."

Jonathan Dy was working in another organization - Charles Schwab - and putting his business administration degree from UC Berkeley to work, trading stocks and providing customer support. But he also began doing tech work, creating web pages and training new hires in desktop applications. He decided to pursue a career in IT and left Schwab just before the downsizing began.

"I like both business and IT, but I like the technology side more," Dy said. "The foundation was laid when I was 10 years old and got my first computer, an Apple II. I've been passionate about computers ever since."

Dy has studied networking on his own and taken exams to earn Microsoft, COMPTIA A+ and Network+ certification. In addition to his full-time classes, he also set a personal goal of taking one certification exam a month. "I think the certification can provide me with a basic foundation of knowledge in networking and computers, but not necessarily the ticket to get into the IT world," Dy said. "That's the reason I intern at LBNL-- to apply the knowledge that I learned from the certification exams and to gain hands on experience. I think the combination of certification and experience will give me a good start in pursing a career in the IT industry."

He heard about the Lab internship program from an instructor at Diablo Valley College, where he's taking computer classes. He squeezed in an interview the day before leaving for a vacation in Hong Kong last December and now he's working with the Mac/PC support group, "living the life of a desktop support technician."

Art Pierce describes himself as "an old COBOL programmer," who put those skills to work as a contractor for the U.S. Postal Service as it prepared for Y2K and all the predicted problems. In addition to studying at the College of Alameda, Pierce has used his computer skills to help various community organizations. He's helped set up networks for the Alameda Multi-Cultural Center, the old Chabot Science Center and Girls, Inc.

Pierce wanted to get into other areas of IT, and while taking his A+ certification at the College of Alameda, he heard about and applied for internships at the Lab and PG&E. The utility company told him he was overqualified, and now he's helping out at the Help Desk. His current duties include responding to voice mail messages, setting up new email accounts, writing up tickets to track reported computer problems and resolving problems when he can.

"LBNL is different from other places I've worked and I've always been interested in science," Pierce said.

When Irina White was pointed toward the internship program by a teacher at Ohlone College, she figured she didn't even meet half of the requirements. Encouraged by her instructor, she applied anyway. Now she's modifying existing active server pages (ASP) projects in the Information Systems and Services Department and learning fast.

"I'm taking tutorials in HTML, Dreamweaver, XML and databases, and I've read two books, each with 600 pages," White said. "My goal is to learn how to maintain Web database pages. To do that, you have to understand the basic parts. You can't just jump into ASP. Now I've got a 300-page book on ASP to read."

White hopes to be an Oracle developer in her next career step, adding that she enjoys her database classes. In fact, she braves South Bay traffic to attend Oracle classes offered by Mission College in Santa Clara and then commutes to the Lab by BART from her home in Fremont.

She first used computers in high school in her native Russia, then studied math and programming at Voronezh State University, writing her first programs in PASCAL and FORTRAN.

"Then, I switched to economics major because I was already working full time as an accountant and it was hard for women in Russia to find a job as a computer programmer," she said. "In Russia, 'computer programmer' is an occupation only for men. Women can get a degree in computer science, but no matter how smart they are, they will never find a job as a computer programmer. My parents still do not believe that I can do it in the USA."

Growing up, White wanted to be a ski instructor. As a youngster, she skied for 10 years, winning many local competitions and being a member of ski team at school. In between her classes at two area colleges, her internship here and another internship at a small software company in Fremont, White likes to get away for skiing at Heavenly. "I am crazy about skiing," she admits. She was also quite a gymnast, spending eight years as a member of her school team in Russia.

One of the things she likes about working in Bldg. 937 in downtown Berkeley is that the setting reminds her of her hometown of Voronezh, a city of one million. "Unlike the suburbs, Berkeley feels like a real city with people walking around downtown."

White also enjoys her work as an intern and says she's now getting email from fellow students, many of whom she doesn't know, asking about the program.