The best internships: rewarded with challenges.

Most internships bring back memories of fetching cups of coffee, making copies and opening cartons of mail for no pay--and even less of a hope of being hired once it's all over.

Don't tell that to anyone at Aramark Uniform Services in Burbank, one of three companies honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal with an Education Leadership Award for its ground-breaking internship program.

For the past several years, Aramark has run an intense, three-month paid internship seminar that brings engineering students from all over the country to Burbank before sending them out to company locations to tackle real-life problems.

The aim: put driven students on a professional obstacle course in hopes of enticing them to apply for a real Aramark job after they graduate.

That helps Aramark Uniform Services, a division of Philadelphia-based Aramark Inc. that provides work clothes, caps and shoes and services for 300,000 factories and other businesses, to replenish the company's rank and file by tapping into the talent pool of highly-trained and technologically-savvy college students even before they graduate, said Juan Palacios, the operations development manager who runs the internship program.

"The ultimate goal is to find managers," he said. "We want to move people, fill those roles. That way, we don't disrupt service to customers."

Of the 12 students who participated in the program this summer, seven have been hired at Aramark.

For students, that promise of a job is tough to beat, said Grace Pranatio, a West Hills resident participating in the program.

"That was a great incentive," said Pranatio, 22, whose internship in the Burbank office ends this month. "They have a really good program and they sold it to me."

Like Pranatio, a recent USC graduate, most participants in the three-month program are undergraduates in high-level engineering programs.

The program employs mostly engineering majors mostly because the issues at Aramark revolve around technical issues, management issues and problem solving.

Aramark attracts them through a long recruiting process that usually starts in January, when Palacios and other staff participate in college job fairs across the country. That usually nets loads of resumes, which Palacios whittles down to 20 or so for interviews. From that, 12 are given formal offers from the company.

Then in June, the students are flown to Burbank to participate in a three-day orientation and training seminar. The meetings offer interns a survey of the company--from human resources to production management to operations support--tours of facilities and informal meet-and-greets with executives.

After training, the students are assigned to an Aramark facility for the three-month internship. This year, students were placed in Sacramento, Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland, Kentucky, Houston, Indiana and East Los Angeles. About three are usually posted in the Burbank headquarters.

It's up to interns to find housing.

Real-life challenge

Vanessa Bongiorno, a human resources manager at Aramark, said being sent to a different city may sound daunting, but it's an important--and realistic--obstacle for a young professional.

"It teaches them to grow up," she said.

"You gel relocated and oftentimes you have to find a place to live."

At each plant, students are paired with a mentor and given an assignment. The first part usually deals with supervising a portion of the operation and handling management issues. The other half is strictly problem solving--taking an issue that the company is grappling with and finding a solution, such as improving energy efficiency or fixing the company's fleet of laundry carts.

Others focus on sales process documentation, supply chain and productivity and establishing satellite locations.

Pranatio has been trying to figure out how to get a heat seal Aramark logo on certain products and what it will cost.

She said her mentors helped her through the process.

"We always have someone to go to if we have any problems or any questions," Pranatio said. "The people I've talked to about my project have been so helpful."

At the end of the summer, students report their findings at a presentation in Chicago. The best ones get job offers, Palacios said.

"The goal is to have an offer in their hand before they graduate. That way, they don't get interviewed by other companies," he said.

Innovative offerings

Aramark is not alone in its innovative internship offerings in the Valley.

The Business Journal is also honoring two other companies that happen to be located in Burbank as well.

Walt Disney Co. offers dozens of undergrad and graduate internships across its divisions, with a heavy emphasis on its theme parks.

At its Burbank headquarters, internships range from the creative side (Imagineering, theatrical, television, film, Internet and art) to administrative (human resources and marketing) to technical (engineering and interior design).

Most are six months long, and students are considered fill-time employees. Students are given a mentor, who also evaluates them on a regular basis.

The importance of mentoring is also emphasized at Cartoon Network.

The Burbank cable station offers its interns mentors in the form of big-name network executives such as Ramsey Naito, vice president of Cartoon Network Films.

Internships are usually 12 weeks and 20 hours a week and tackle everything from longform development to casting to legal. Interns also learn the ropes by reading scripts, developing submission logs and writing specs.

All three companies being honored stress hands-on learning and communication between interns and supervisors.

Pamela Welden, program manager for the Professional Development Center at Glendale Community College, is impressed with Aramark's program.

"It's effective because they have their system so well tuned," she said. "They have their interns connected with upper management. The interns really learn what it's like to do a project when you're part of a team."

That's the case for Pranatio, who is looking forward to working for the company for the long-term.

"I'm having a great time and learning a lot about the industry," she said. "I'm talking with a lot of people from across the country, from the workers at the plant to managers. It's been great."

By CHRIS COATES 

Staff Reporter