Anthony Mele is an example of how both employer and employee benefit from the Anne Arundel Academies' intern program. The program is designed to give real world experience to students in the Academies' disciplines – information technology, finance, law and public safety, marketing,and hospitality/travel and tourism.

Anthony came to Fiber Plus, a local company that specializes in network installations, in the summer of 1999. His experience in the intern program that summer confirmed to him that Information Technology was the field he wanted to pursue. A member of the first group of interns at Fiber Plus, Anthony impressed his supervisors with his drive, interest in learning and his superb work ethic. He was delighted to be getting hands on experience in his field.

He enrolled at Frostburg and for the next four summers came back to work at Fiber Plus. The money he made working for the company allowed him to finance his schooling. “I wouldn't have been able to go to college if it weren't for this job,” he said. As an experienced and valued technician, Anthony earned far more at Fiber Plus than he could have at most other summer jobs.

It was also a learning experience directly related to his future career. “I wasn't flipping burgers,” he says. “Every day I was doing something different.” He started initially pulling cable through conduits, graduated to other aspects of cable design and installation, and eventually terminated and tested fiber optic and copper cable for networks at a number of Maryland state agencies and universities.

Carl Strobel, president of Fiber Plus, looks at the intern program, as exemplified by Anthony, as a win-win situation. “Anthony learned the basics of computer networking, the field he wants to go into, and made money that helped pay his college expenses. The company got an experienced employee with all the necessary skills to help during the busy summer months.”