Employer-Mentor Participation

The college is currently seeking businesses and organizations that would like to participate in the PILAS program as Employer-Mentors. Santa Fe Community College pays student interns for you to mentor them! Note: There are currently more mentor applications than available paid internships, so not all mentors will be matched with an intern in a given semester.

Business participants speak very highly of the PILAS program. According to a December 2019 survey, PILAS Employer-Mentors were:
– 99% very satisfied to satisfied with PILAS
– 99% very satisfied to satisfied with student work outcomes
– 95% very likely to recommend to other employers

Criteria for Employer-Mentors

If you and your organization can say YES to ALL 4 of the following criteria, then we welcome you to the PILAS Internship Program and invite you to complete a Mentor Application Form.

1. Do you have the willingness and time to mentor a PILAS intern?
   1. Please remember that mentoring will take more of your time, not less (and it’s worth it!)
   2. Typically around the 5th or 6th week, students can spend more time working independently.
2. Can you describe a meaningful project for the intern, with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, as well as learning objectives?
3. Do you have the skills/experience in this specific project to mentor the student adequately?
   1. As an example, many businesses will benefit from a social media program, yet if they do not know how to actually create and use social media, this cannot qualify as the internship project. The mentor has to have the ability to guide the student to the completion of the internship.
   2. The mentor application gives you the ability to require what skills and abilities the intern needs to bring to the internship (ie intermediate HTML skills, ability to solder, basic Excel skills, etc.)
4. Does your organization have the willingness and capacity to hire?
   1. This is not a promise of hire, just an understanding that if the intern performs well there could be an offer of part-time, consultant, or full-time employment because your organization has that capacity.

Instructions on Completing the Employer-Mentor Application

*Before you complete a Mentor Application Form, please take a moment to review and ensure that you meet the Criteria for Employer-Mentors.

1. The best projects for a PILAS internship are those priority projects that keep getting pushed down the priority list…because of other priorities!
2. Please define your meaningful project that more or less fits into ONE specific academic area. For example please do not combine a social media project that has a great deal of project management. Defining a project within the academic area parameters will increase the chances of recruiting an intern that is well-matched to your project.
3. In all areas of the application, please be succinct and define clear, measurable goals for the interns.
   1. Example: Intern will write 8-10 blogs and submit them monthly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
4. Please review the Examples of Completed Mentor Applications to help guide your submission.
5. Any questions? Don’t hesitate to contact Thomasinia Ortiz-Gallegos : thomasinia.ortizgall@sfcc.edu | 505-428-1238

The PILAS Internship Program is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2024 semester.