From left, Professor John Capurso (Accounting), May graduate Nancy Lorme (Accounting) and Professor Michael Forte (Computer Science) addressed the Suffolk County Legislature’s Education and Diversity Committee on August 27. Each spoke about the value of internships for students like Nancy and encouraged the development and expansion of internship opportunities for SCCC students.

“This internship was the best experience of my time as a student,” recent graduate Nancy Lorme proudly asserted, referring to the accounting internship she had completed in Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy’s office.

This is remarkable, coming from a May 2025 student Commencement speaker (see Commencement video 5:15 to 5:25) who had received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, PTK All-State Scholar and Coca-Cola Bronze Scholar Awards and who had been president of the PTK Honor Society and Rotaract Community Service Club, a campus peer mentor, member of the Honors Program and member of the Student Conduct Board. Nancy, a mom of three, had been fully involved in campus life—and still says the internship organized by Assistant Professor of Accounting John Capurso was her best experience during her time here.

Nancy was speaking before the Suffolk County Legislature’s Education and Diversity Committee meeting on August 27. As she explained to the legislators,

Mr. John Kennedy’s genuine warmth and friendly demeanor were evident. He would walk through the halls, greeting each staff member, taking the time for friendly conversations and words of encouragement with the interns. This personal connection made a significant impact on me, showing that even in a high-pressure environment, compassion and mentorship are paramount, and dedicated public servants can both effectively serve their community and invest in the next generation of leaders.

The team, while kind and approachable, held firm expectations for quality work. This created an environment where I was encouraged to ask questions and take on challenges, all while being held to the same high standards as full-time employees. The guidance I received, especially from Mr. Timothy Smith, helped me develop a strong work ethic and a deeper appreciation for attention to details.

Educators meet legislators

The goal of our presentation to this legislative committee was to emphasize how meaningful such internship opportunities are for SCCC students and to encourage collaboration to develop and expand the college’s internship programs. At last count, we identified around 15 distinct academic curricula that include internship or cooperative education courses, and approximately 14 FA members and seven Guild members who teach these on a fairly regular basis.

For this introductory meeting, I had invited the following FA members to address the committee with me:

• Courtney Brewer, Professor of Psychology, FA Executive Vice President
• John Capurso, Assistant Professor of Accounting, Instructor of BUS150
• Cynthia Eaton, Professor of English, FA Secretary
• Michael Forte, Adjunct Instructor of Computer Science (and College Assistant Director of Web Services), Instructor of CST288

The week before our presentation, at the August 21 SCCC Board of Trustees meeting (see video :45 to 1:50), Tom Lupo from Comptroller John Kennedy’s office spoke during public comment about the great work our student interns do in his office. I’ve had similar conversations with Comptroller Kennedy when I see him at events throughout the year; he always has great praise, respect and admiration for interns like Nancy.

We deeply appreciate Comptroller Kennedy’s advocacy for the college’s internship program, and Nancy knows better than most the invaluable benefits that come from hands-on experience in the workplace. Thank you to Nancy for taking the time to present alongside our FA members.

FA members speak about student success

John Capurso, because he teaches BUS150, has the most experience working directly with Comptroller Kennedy’s office. John talked about how internships are not just an extension of what students learn in the classroom but also “provide students with firsthand professional experience and, perhaps most importantly, the belief that they have real promise and potential as future professionals—that they are capable of success in a previously unfamiliar environment.”

However, there are challenges, he noted:

[Our students] are competing for limited internship opportunities against students from four-year schools, students that have more classes and academic preparation behind them, at least on paper. This puts our students at something of a competitive and maybe unfair disadvantage. Even though their degree programs are practical, career focused and designed to prepare them specifically to enter the workforce immediately, they are often overlooked as candidates.

The truth is that our students have the courses and skills necessary to be successful interns, and the performance record to back that up.

For the students who do land these valuable internships, it can lead to more than just workplace skills and experience, it can lead to a job. Michael Forte is college assistant director of web services but serves as an FA adjunct when he teaches CST288: Cooperative Education/Internships for Computing Technology. Michael spoke with pride about the results of his efforts to place the right students into the right internship sites:

Over the past two years, many of my students were hired as full-time employees solely because of their internships. They are now working full time in the county as computer programmers, administrative support specialists, technology tutors, systems administrators and help desk support agents, just to name a few.

We know the college values workforce development in addition to preparing students for academic transfer. Thus, Courtney, Cynthia and I all addressed how internships help students develop the “soft skills” that are sorely needed in the workplace. The front cover of the January 26, 2024, Newsday displayed the headline “Poll of LI CEOs: Job Applicants Not Qualified,” for an article noting that seven out of 10 CEOs said applicants did not seem career ready as a result of poor writing and communication skills. This was just one of the concerns they expressed about current job applicants.

During her presentation, Cynthia relayed how Comptroller Kennedy had told her after our May Commencement that he’d love to see the college’s internship programs further developed because, he said, “Student interns need not only their discipline-specific skills (accounting, taxation, finance, audit) but also more training in written communication and the soft skills needed to succeed in a business setting.”

Growing and expanding

I am so proud of the FA members who joined me in speaking to our elected legislators.

We are eager to see how we might collaborate with the college, county and Legislature to enhance our students’ internship opportunities. When we screened Legislator Steve Flotteron over the summer, he had offered one idea of having history majors from the college doing internships involving archival work in county historical societies. This kind of shared idea generation—between elected officials and our members who are doing this work firsthand—is what we would love to see grow.

This is so important to the future of Suffolk County. Internships provide critical support to the places that enjoy working with our students and, as Nancy had shared, they are also deeply meaningful to students’ professional development.

In her introduction, Courtney provided important context for the overall presentation:

We have been fortunate to enjoy the support of the Legislature and are buoyed by the positive comments we have heard about our student interns. A college education is far more than the content delivered in lectures, it includes the development of the entire student, shaping them into a productive member of our larger community and thereby shaping the very fabric of that community.

At the college, our classroom and non-classroom faculty, support staff and administrators are all working with students to contribute, in one way or another, to the development of these vital skills.

Nothing, however, compares to real-life experience.

Our elected county leaders are asking for more of our student interns. They value the work and the energy they bring to their assigned internship. Let’s continue to grow the program and keep these important programs expanding.