Recipients of the Inaugural 2022 Virginia Intern Day “Top Employers for Interns” Honored

RICHMOND — The Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP), in collaboration with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, recognized 32 recipients of the inaugural 2022 Top Virginia Employers for Interns Awards.

The award recipients, on average, each plan to hire 11 to 50 interns this year for paid hybrid and in-person internship positions. Key characteristics of recipients’ internship programs generally include: A minimum 8-13 week-long internship; exposure to senior leadership; structured mentorship programs; and team lunches, social events and learning opportunities. Some select internship programs also offer paid time off, 401K contributions and training for industry certifications and security clearances.

“Internships enrich the education experience for students and consequently reinforce Virginia as the top state for education, talent and business,” said Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. “The 32 recipients represent a distinguished group of employers that help to cultivate talent here in Virginia for the betterment of its students, regions and the commonwealth as a whole.”

Listed below are the recipients in alphabetical order.

2022 Top Employers for Interns Recipients

1. The AES Corporation (Arlington): The work is hands-on and meaningful.  At AES, we focus on a 70/20/10 approach to learning and development to allow interns to grow through experience and exposure, learning through others, in addition to formal learning opportunities.
2. Apex Clean Energy (Charlottesville): Each week, our interns meet with a different team leader to learn the specifics of that team’s day-to-day work, the tools they use, their milestones, how the team has evolved over the company’s 13-year history, and the obstacles faced and how they are addressed.
3. Busch Gardens (Williamsburg): In addition to holding a leadership role in the park, interns gain real world leadership experience as they learn how to serve guests and manage a team of ambassadors at one of the most visited tourist destinations in the state.
4. Busch Vacuum Solutions (Virginia Beach): We currently have many employees who started out as interns and who are now proud to be a part of our team.
5. CGI Federal (Fairfax): The goal of CGI’s U.S. summer intern program is to provide a holistic, hands-on program that allows our interns to gain corporate experience, alongside practical training and development in order to best prepare them for their future careers at CGI and beyond.
6. Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) (Prince George): For the past 10 years, CCAM consistently offers summer and academic semester internships to engineering and technology students from our partner universities: VCU, VSU, VT, UVA and ODU. These outstanding experiences pair students at either the undergraduate or graduate level with top research engineers to help solve challenging technical problems for our industrial members.
7. Dewberry (Fairfax): Interns get the opportunity to network with other interns, as well as staff and senior leaders across Dewberry through a series of workshops and events.
8. Dominion Energy (Richmond): We provide engaging programs that include high-level networking opportunities, meaningful work experiences, mentorships and onsite learning activities, such as tours, to get an up-close view of our offshore wind turbines and nuclear facilities, among others.
9. Framatome (Lynchburg): In recent years, about half of the graduating interns join Framatome as full-time employees after graduation.
10. Germanna Community College Technical Services Department (Fredericksburg and Locust Grove): Our students gain hands-on experience in a higher education environment; this leads to skills that are transferable to many other organizations.
11. Inmotion (Blacksburg): Our interns get immersed in real role activities they would actually see in their careers. Our interns report to the management team to show the work they have done and their completions and take-aways.
12. Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) (Danville): We host interns at our organization and set up and coordinate paid internships for high school students with local government departments and private employers in the region.
13. Kaiser Permanente (McLean): Kaiser Permanente offers flexible, virtual career exploration and educational opportunities that connect students with highly skilled healthcare experts addressing social determinants of health and support professional development and training through exposure to Kaiser Permanente’s leading health system.
14. LabCorp (Richmond): Labcorp’s phlebotomy internship in Virginia is a two-four- week practical experience based program in partnership with participating community colleges such as Tidewater Community College based in Norfolk, VA.
15. Learning Tree International (Herndon): Interns attend weekly collaboration meetings and Executive Roundtables which provide interns with broad exposure to the business and various leadership styles including CEO Insights, Financial 101, Career Search Best Practices, Effective Communication Skills, and Marketing 101.
16. LifeNet Health (Virginia Beach): LifeNet Health offers interns a 10-week project-based, real-world immersion at a multi-faceted, global organization — giving them tangible experience that directly applies to their future profession.
17. Mary Washington Healthcare (Fredericksburg): Mary Washington Healthcare consists of Mary Washington Hospital, Stafford Hospital, three emergency departments and more than 50 healthcare facilities and wellness services in the surrounding counties that enable us to offer a wide variety of learning opportunities.
18. Navy Federal Credit Union (Vienna): Our internship program investment is to develop our interns, support their learning and build a talent pipeline for full-time employment opportunities upon their graduation. As a result, we offer the majority of our interns’ full-time roles with the organization.
19. Northwest Federal Credit Union (Herndon): We offer our students a variety of exciting networking events such as Intern Orientation, Muffins with Managers, a Top Golf Welcome event with team building enhancements and an opportunity to go out into the community and receive paid volunteer hours for participating in National Intern Volunteer Day.
20. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) (Roanoke): As an intern, you are doing the job of a national bank examiner from day one. Participants are able to see exactly what an examiner does and get paid while doing it.
21. Parsons (Centreville): We strive to integrate mentorships, career development opportunities and social events to ensure that interns are getting the most out of their time with us and being given opportunities to grow their network with their fellow interns and other employees within the company.
22. Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) (McLean): All interns participate in a Leadership Seminar along with Project and People Management courses provided by our L&D department. Interns receive four days of formal Leadership and Project Management training. Interns meet directly and regularly interact with our Executive Team and learn from industry experts.
23. Peregrine Computer Consultants Corporation (PCCC) (Saint Paul): Interns work on a variety of client projects with oversight to expose them to a wide-variety of computer and cyber security tasks.
24. Serco Inc. (Herndon): In addition to Serco’s formal three-tiered learning approach, our program also incorporates an Intern Executive Challenge project designed to provide interns the opportunity to work together in small teams to solve high-visibility challenges formulated by Serco’s Executive Management Team. Serco is immensely proud to share that 92% of interns eligible for full time offers have received full-time offers.
25. Soccer Shots (Fairfax): During the first four weeks of the internship, the intern will work closely with the Regional Directors on preparing for the upcoming season — scheduling instructors, running demos and promoting the season. As an intern participants will go through our comprehensive training program and become a certified Soccer Shots Coach.
26. State Corporation Commission (Richmond): Interns have the opportunity to work with and learn from senior staff members who are subject matter experts in their fields. SCC internships provide practical real-world experience that prepare interns for exciting full-time career opportunities.
27. STIHL (Virginia Beach): STIHL designs its internships with a future focus in mind. We hope the investment of time and energy will lend to the student choosing STIHL as their career path following graduation, providing a full-time position with great pay and benefits.
28. TekSynap (Reston): During an intern’s time at TekSynap they are exposed to all levels of leadership. Interns have access to engage in open dialogue with management, executive leadership and our C-Suite.
29. Tech for Troops (Richmond): Tech For Troops brings in interns year round and teaches the students all facets of IT work: refurbishing computers, networking (both IT and with customers), logistics and research.
30. VA Bio | VA Bio-Connect (Richmond): In addition to offering its own internship positions, VA Bio offers the STEM2VA Internship Program, an immersive industry internship experience where student-interns, as part of a statewide cohort, gain access to a broader network and learn lucrative skills in entrepreneurship, leadership, communication and more that will aid them in their professional settings.
31. Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer P.C. (WEC) (Norfolk): We train our interns to learn the skills necessary to do the same type of work that an entry-level staff accountant would do. The goal is that our interns show progression to receive a second offer post internship, which helps us to build our entry-level staff group.
32. Wolf Trap (Vienna): Since 1980, Wolf Trap has been offering paid, professional development opportunities to help advance and build the next generation of arts administration professionals. Wolf Trap programs a comprehensive schedule of workshops, seminars and events that not only benefit its interns and apprentices but also the organization.

About V-TOP: In 2019, the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V+TOP) became a formally established partnership between the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. V+TOP is funded through the Commonwealth Innovative Internship Fund with the intent to: 1) Expand paid and credit-bearing student internships and other work-based learning opportunities in collaboration with Virginia employers and 2) Facilitate the readiness of students, employers and institutions of higher education to participate in internships and work-based learning.