National Services Group developed the College Works Painting internship in 1987, and thousands of students have completed the program serving as branch managers—one branch amounts to an entire city—for the duration of the summer program.

O'Leary first heard of the internship when a recruiter visited one of her classes at UC-Berkeley. After an extensive interview process, O'Leary was assigned to work as a branch manager for the city of Sunnyvale.

"The idea of running your own business is intimidating," O'Leary says. But the potential of earning thousands of dollars drew her to the program.

Students go through training in February or March, learning everything from business management skills to sanding and painting houses. The company has a contract with Kelly Moore Paints, whose employees train students to paint and use their products.

Then the students are set loose into the city to knock on doors and put up fliers and advertisements marketing their services. They line up jobs with local residents as well as hire painters to do the work. After the students arrange for $30,000 of work to be done, they can start production in the summer.

Though O'Leary has only signed up $10,500 of work so far, her counterpart Igor Belogolovsky, the branch manager for the city of Cupertino, has already started production after lining up $46,500 in work.

Belogolovsky, also a student at Berkeley says, "There are not a whole lot of job opportunities available that give you complete control."

Belogolovsky buys and picks up supplies for his work crew, who are all local to Cupertino and Sunnyvale. Most of the people he recruited are already in the house-painting industry, he says.

Students meet weekly with Michael Hack, district manager for Northern California, to complete follow-up training in time management, ethics and sales management.

Hack is also a student, in his fourth year of business management studies at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He completed the internship program three years ago. Hack grew up in Sunnyvale and says Sunnyvale and Cupertino offer a good sales market for the interns.

Though the potential to earn as much as $12,000 or more is possible this summer, Belogolovsky is still working in the red because the jobs aren't done yet and he hasn't seen any money.

Branch operators work under an incentive payment system. The work crew makes $8 to $12 per hour, and branch operators like O'Leary and Belogolovsky make anywhere from 20 percent to 45 percent of the profits, after paying for supplies and labor. Most managers make $9,000 to $12,000, says Hack.

O'Leary and Belogolovsky are enthusiastic about the program though neither plan to study business in the future.

O'Leary, a politics major, says the management and communications skills she's developed from working with the program are helpful. "These are skills you can bring into any field, especially politics," O'Leary says.

Belogolovsky, who is majoring in history and mass communications, agrees. "This has nothing to do with either of my majors. But marketing and management will be helpful in anything I go into," he says.

For more information on College Works Painting, call 888.450.9675 or visit http://www.collegeworks.com.