In the morning hours, the otherwise quiet summer air turns into a bustling courtroom — one of many inside the Ventura County Hall of Justice — for intern Luzmaria Sanchez Guevara ‘27. With over a hundred cases coming through in a day, the courtroom was restless. Yet, despite the busy faces of clients and attorneys alike, there was one figure who provided a source of comfort for Sanchez Guevara. All it took was for a judge to play music, a small gesture to help ease the courtroom’s intimidating nature.
“My favorite moment … [was when] the judge in the courtroom I was in [for] the mornings would play music during breaks,” Sanchez Guevara recalled. “His excuse was that when he was an attorney, he felt that if we played music during the breaks, it would [make] people less nervous.”
Sanchez Guevara spent seven weeks of her summer interning at the public defender’s office for Ventura County, Calif., as she pursued her passion for law. “I want to go to law school and hopefully work in that same office,” she shared. During her time at the Hall of Justice, Sanchez Guevara helped organize cases, developed her professional communication skills and interpreted in both English and Spanish. “I also became better at opening up and asking questions,” she said.
Student internships offer young people an opportunity to experiment with real-world skills before they head out into futures of their own. The length and rigor mimic that of a job, but with the benefits of mentorship and room for growth. Whether students want to major in the field they are interning for or simply build connections, internships allow students to explore a variety of possibilities in a guided professional environment.
“I’ve never been in [that] environment before,” Tanvi Dasoju ‘26 said. She spent seven weeks as an intern for the Ventura County Health Care Agency, visiting various county facilities and managing patient finances, committing the same amount of time as a nine-to-five. Dasoju wants to be a pre-med major and continue that passion into the medical field, alongside an interest in business and finance. Combining the two aspects, she described the experience as being “cool to see [where] those two areas intersect.”
“At the end, [I] got to present to the Board of Directors … It was a bit scary,” Dasoju admitted. Her work covered how the Ventura County Healthcare Agency operated, visits to the facilities, their finances, patient management and more. “It was kind of like ‘okay, well, I’ve been doing this for seven weeks,’ it’s satisfying to … present to [the Board], which is pretty huge.”
As the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) lead student intern for three summers, Henry Escobar ‘27 was provided with an invaluable asset: networking. “I really liked all the possible networking I could make,” he explained.
“My favorite moment … would probably be going to the board meetings,” Escobar shared. “Seeing not only what our own VUSD is doing, but also how the council responds.” Although he does not want to major in communications or media management, his internship has given him beneficial experiences. “I gained a lot of skills in this internship,” Escobar said. “How to write emails properly … how to communicate effectively …” He additionally managed the VUSD Instagram account and was trained on how to make professional posts.
Returning from their productive summers, Foothill students who interned with organizations across the Ventura community entered the school year equipped with newfound experience and knowledge. Whether applying to colleges, jobs or affirming their passions and interests, students can carry lessons from their internships into the classroom and beyond.
