School’s out, interns are in!

Authored by Wendy Shepperd, SVP of Engineering

Summer is here and that means summer internships are in session! I firmly believe that everyone should have access to and the ability to prioritize hands-on learning experiences, and that’s one of the (many) reasons I’m passionate about SailPoint’s summer internship program with Code2College. 

In case you don’t already know, the Code2College mission is to dramatically increase the number of historically underserved students who enter and excel in STEM undergraduate majors and careers.  

During the summer months, SailPoint invites a cohort of Code2College students for a paid internship. This program enables high school students that might not normally have access or exposure to exploring a career in STEM (or more specifically, identity security) to participate and gain crucial hands-on experience. The financial support from the internship allows students to immerse themselves in the industry, develop their skills, and build a foundation for future employment. Our Code2College interns will work on things like: 

• Internal libraries and frameworks 
• Customer-facing UI or internal APIs 
• Backend APIs or data transformation that power CIEM and much more 

This marks my first summer at SailPoint and I’m really looking forward to helping equip students with the tools to face security challenges and share my passion for engineering. And, after all, learning is a lifelong endeavor so I’m confident the teaching will be going both ways. 

I remember my first job as a software developer, and although I took many courses in school, it wasn’t like the real world, where you work as part of a team to build and deploy software. We did not have an internship program at my company at that time, but fortunately, two different mentors partnered with me to help me learn the ropes. They taught me the various frameworks and development tools, and how to use our APIs to build applications. They reviewed my code, gave me feedback, and answered my endless questions. Thanks to their support, I was able to develop my skills and become a strong contributor and full member of the team.  

Not everyone is lucky enough to have people take them under their wing. Had there been a program like Code2College when I was in school, it would have been a tremendous boost to my learning and faster ramping up in my job. And it would have offered a community and additional support system to help me with that transition.  

By partnering with Code2College, we aim to break barriers, foster diversity, and fuel innovation in the world of STEM. So, I say to all of the Summer 2023 Code2College + SailPoint interns: welcome to the crew! We can’t wait to see what you accomplish this summer. 

For more information about SailPoint, visit: www.sailpoint.com/why-us/about-us/