This summer, a group of college students walked into internships across Jewish Cincinnati, well prepared and ready to work. They took placements at Rockdale Temple, Wise Temple, the Mayerson JCC, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the American Jewish Archives, Shomrei Olam, and JVS Careers.

The placements come through the JVS Careers internship program. Each one is paid and supervised, and each pairs a student with free career coaching, resume help, and interview prep. The idea is simple. Give young adults real experience and give them the skills to build on it.

That combination matters. A first internship is often where a student learns how a workplace actually runs, how to ask good questions, and how to turn a class assignment into work that a team depends on. Doing that inside a Jewish organization adds something more. Students spend the summer alongside people who care about the same community they grew up in.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati helps fund the program through Local Allocations. That funding is an early investment in Jewish Cincinnati's future leaders, the students who may one day sit on the other side of the table, mentoring the next group of interns.

For now, they are the ones learning, and the organizations that hosted them are better for it.

Interested in internships through JVS Careers? Click here for more information and how to apply.