Photo by Jessica Tran.

“I am not confident at all, that’s why I’m going to grad school after I graduate college.”

Angela Sevilla

Fourth-year, Porter

Literature, creative writing

Photo by Jessica Tran.

“I have two majors — I guess I have a little more background versatility than other people. My plan is also not to enter the job market directly. I plan to join the Peace Corps after college and then enter the job market.”

Jason Fitzcutlet

Fourth-year, Cowell

Environmental science and psychology

Photo by Jessica Tran.

“I plan on staying in school forever. My plans after college are grad school, professional school and then being a professor. I am confident we will always need teachers. As long as I stay smart and motivated I’m not worried about jobs.”

Leigh Douglas

Second-year, College Eight

Philosophy and cognitive science

Photo by Jessica Tran.

“Very confident. At the job fair I was at last week, the second I would say I’m an electrical engineering major they would say, ‘Oh! How are you? Let me give you my email.’ But I think opportunities are a little unfair between the majors.”

Ethan Pinsker

Second-year, Stevenson

Electrical engineering

Illustration by Amanda Alten

Against a backdrop of faux marble pillars and potted plants, an epic orchestral tune blares from speakers set up around the football field as the Cabrillo College class of 2012 files in to take their seats. Onlookers blow air horns and shout support from the stadium seating as students are called upon to receive their diplomas and formally end this stage of their education.

Some are in their 40s or 50s and dream of entering a new field or getting a better job than their previous one. Others are in their 20s, about to transfer to a university or enter the workforce for the first time in their lives.

“In 2012, over 18,000 students attended Cabrillo,” said Cabrillo’s vice president of instruction Renee Kilmer as she addressed the crowd. “The oldest student this year is 75 and the youngest is 19. One thousand and 34 of them are receiving their associate’s degrees, over 530 are receiving certificates, and over 500 have plans to transfer to a four-year university.”

Graduating from Cabrillo means different things for each of these students. With degrees and certifications offered in everything from journalism and business to landscape horticulture and fire technology, the class of 2012 is a varied group. Ultimately though, the vast majority plan to use the skills they’ve obtained at Cabrillo to pursue a career, a process that has become increasingly uncertain in the years following the financial crisis of 2008.

The economic outlook darkened again in early June when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the May 2012 Jobs Report, which showed the worst month for jobs added this year. According to the report, the unemployment rate rose in May, going from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent nationwide, and some analysts have voiced concerns that this may cast doubt on the meager recovery we’ve seen in the past few months.

Graduates, while well aware of the economic environment they’re about to enter, nevertheless remain hopeful.

“I’m about 60 percent confident on the economy, but I’m 99 percent confident in myself and that I can do it, especially with the skills I acquired here at Cabrillo,” said Gabby Avila, who graduated with an associate degree in international relations and plans to transfer to San Jose State University to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

“I think I’m more confident than my instructors are,” said Genoa Fox, who graduated with an associate of science degree in nursing and health science, an EKG certification and an associate degree in Spanish. “My instructors have basically been telling us not to get our hopes up but I say you’ve got to visualize it to do it, and I can see myself doing it.”

Fox hopes to get a job in a trauma emergency room intensive care unit, and eventually to become a flight nurse on an emergency response helicopter team. Fox’s experience has become common among students at Cabrillo and other higher education institutions, as instructors take pains not to get their students’ hopes up and stress taking practical classes as a fallback to ensure employment.

“Times are changing,” said Academic Senate head and history professor Michael Mangin. “You know, something that was so straightforward for most of my adult life like teaching, a lot of my history students would be very interested in teaching and my conversation with them now is a little different than it’s been for the last 20 or 25 years.”

Mangin said he now often advises students interested in history to take a few business or economics classes to augment their liberal arts education and make the prospect of employment a bit easier to come by.

A strictly practical path to the workforce might become even harder for some students to obtain next year though, as Cabrillo College is faced with the most extreme year of cuts since 2008 if the tax initiative on California’s November ballot doesn’t pass. If not, programs such as culinary arts, hospitality management, welding and others could find themselves on the chopping block.

“It is conceivable [that these programs and others will be cut],” Mangin said. “Especially if the November initiative doesn’t pass. My guess is that we’ve probably cut about 15 percent of where we were at four years ago, and we’re probably going to cut about another 8 or 10 percent if it doesn’t pass. Something’s gotta give.”

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

In a competitive job market, students are encouraged to take internships, make connections and essentially get their foot in the door. You have to shake the right hands, work with the right companies and learn the skills you need to become undeniably employable.

Or at least, that’s how it should work.

But employers are taking on unpaid interns only to cushion their companies when they can’t afford to keep full-time staff.

Unpaid interns are oftentimes overworked without compensation or are hired under the guise of bettering their skills only to become a coffee-fetching, mail-sorting office drone.

Last year, two men took film giant Fox Searchlight to court for abusing their status as unpaid interns. The men argued that they weren’t taught new skills, but rather were made to do menial tasks more appropriate for an entry-level employee.

The men had been hired to work in production and accounting for the film “Black Swan,” but instead were left cleaning the kitchen and taking lunch orders for staff.

And now, this February, a 26-year-old woman is taking publishing giant Hearst Corporation to court.

The woman, who was hired as an intern, said she was overworked and unpaid, putting in 40–55 hours a week from August until December of 2011. Her lawyers assert she essentially served as free-labor for fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, owned by Hearst. She is now seeking minimum wage and overtime pay for the months she worked for the company.

What these cases highlight is a clear need for regulation on the ways companies handle their unpaid interns. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, interns working for the for-profit sector can work without compensation if they do not displace other paid workers, if the internship serves a training and educational purpose, and the company does not immediately benefit from the intern.

Rather, an internship is “for the benefit of the intern,” according to the Department of Labor. When companies only take on unpaid interns to fulfill open, employed positions, they are abusing a system meant to train future generations of workers.

Interns are not employees of the company and they should not be treated as such. Interns are students and no matter their age or experience level, they are entering an unpaid position to learn and improve their skill set, not save a company money by replacing entry-level employees.

Internships are an extension of an education, not volunteer programs. Companies eager to take on unpaid interns should recognize this. They should be held accountable when they blatantly break U.S. labor laws.

Students should be wary of companies eager to abuse their status as an “unpaid intern.” But while there are many entry-level positions mislabeled as an internship, there are still legal, ethical and very rewarding internships available.

There may be companies that choose to exploit the labor of those trying to break into competitive industries, but there are also companies with structured, challenging and worthwhile internship programs that value education.

Prospective interns: know your rights, and good luck.