When Cynthia Anderson was "downsized" by a Woodland carpet-cushion manufacturer three years ago, she had two choices. She could either start all over again at the bottom rung of some other industry--or the Dixon resident could go back to school. The road she chose has made her the first success story of a pilot intern program to encourage vocational students from Yuba Community College District-Woodland Campus to find jobs at UC Davis. Anderson is the program's first career hire, as a mid-level administrative assistant in the Division of Biological Sciences. The new internship project is the brainchild of Employment Outreach Manager Ellie Sandoval, who is faced with having to fill a growing demand for highly skilled office staff with ever-diminishing candidate pools. By establishing a formal relationship between the business-computer-applications and office-administration departments at Yuba's Woodland Campus and the UC Davis Temporary Employment Pool, Sandoval says she has high hopes of creating a permanent job pipeline within the Yolo-Sutter communities. Sandoval has also started a formal contract with Heald Business College to sponsor unpaid student interns on campus and has approached community colleges in Solano and Sacramento counties with similar offers. "We're continuing the process of diversifying the applicant pool," Sandoval says. "We're not just bringing in anybody but people in the learning mode who have already gained the skills in the classroom and will continue to learn on the job at UC Davis." Yuba College represents a rich opportunity for UC Davis to build a more diverse staff. Serving students of disproportionately low- economic status from a mainly rural area, the community college has a 3,000-member student body, with women comprising 70 percent. The statistics show half of the students are white (including a number of Russian immigrants), 35 percent are Hispanic, with the remainder being mostly African American, Hmong, Laotian, East Indian and other Asians. The average student is 29 years old. Francisco Rodriguez, associate dean of instruction and student services for Yuba College's Woodland Campus, says the university can be imposing to outsiders. "I still think that while Woodland is only about eight miles from Davis, there is still a mystique about UC Davis and the ability to gain access as a student or employee," he says. "What we're trying to do on both levels is to demystify the university and provide information to both students and prospective employees that UC Davis is a great employer and great place to study." An old friend's help It took Rodriguez, an old campus friend, to get the Woodland Campus program off the ground, Sandoval reports. He is a UC Davis alumnus who left for Woodland two years ago after 15 years in the Student Affairs Office, including a stint as the first Cross-Cultural Center director. "Francisco brought in an understanding of the university culture and was a real benefit to encouraging the program because he understood the importance of such a strategic link between the two places," Sandoval says. Rodriguez has worked with his vocational-education faculty to identify their top students for the program. The students must have finished with the community college certificate program to be eligible for a four-month, full-time, paid internship. They are paid through the Temporary Employment Pool, which will cycle the interns into the pool after they finish their internship until career positions are secured, Sandoval says. The internship success depends on the generous efforts of its sponsors. This winter, the willing "guinea pigs" were management service officers Rachel Mallery of the Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, who sponsored Anderson; and Mary Dixon of the Section of Plant Biology and June Taylor of the Department of Human and Community Development, who shared intern Brenda Smith of Woodland. Sandoval has lined up more sponsors for another round of interns, Pat Gutierrez of the Student Financial Aid Office and Sue Torguson of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. There's no mystery behind the campus's shortage of qualified clerical candidate pools, says Mallery, who notes the change in expectations since she arrived on campus some 37 years ago as a senior clerk typist straight from college. High expectations for support staff "We expect everybody to know so much and are not that willing to pay for this knowledge. Our expectations for clericals are extremely high and the classifications are low," she says. "It is hard for people from outside to come here unless they come in at the bottom--and it's very, very hard for them to come in at this level and stay when they know they possess greater skills, and it is very difficult to get reclassified. Also, because we are so short-handed, it makes it difficult to take time to train. We are running skeleton crews." Given those expectations, Mallery says she was pleased to see the ease with which Anderson has picked up difficult accounting and other office tasks. Mallery sent her intern to DaFIS and grant-administration courses and plans to further Anderson's education with Payroll/Personnel System training. Although she had 3 1/2 years experience in accounting at her carpet-cushion business, Anderson says her time at Yuba College made the difference in being able to adapt to the campus financial information system. "[At my Woodland job] I was going through the motions and never knew why I was posting things to the ledger. At Yuba, I learned why certain transactions needed to be processed and the route that those transactions take along the way and how they affect different things." Another intern sponsor, Taylor, says she took seriously Sandoval's charge of developing competitive clerical candidates through the internship. As a result, she and her staff structured an intensive, educational internship filled with the varied tasks that support staff need to know, from accounting to the academic-recruitment process. As a result, the four months of challenging work--by Taylor, departmental staff and the intern Smith--have borne fruit. 'She's risen to the occasion' "I can certainly say without any hesitation that Brenda has proven herself to very much be an asset for the university, and I would expect her to be competitive in a candidates' pool. She's done a tremendous job and has certainly risen to the occasion." Taylor hopes that the fledgling program, which at this point is able to place about two people every four months, continues. "It's mutually beneficial for Yuba College, for UC Davis and for the individual interns," Taylor says. "I absolutely would have another intern myself." Smith, who went back to school in 1997 after a seven-year break from high school and numerous food-service jobs, reports that she likes the "problem solving and brainwork" that the internship has provided. When Smith and Anderson receive their certificates of completion in accounting and general business management, respectively, and Smith her associate of science degree this spring, they will bring something extra to UC Davis. Both have become confirmed believers in continuing their education. "I'm taking a computer class and conversational Spanish now," Smith says, admitting that she's ready for a little break before forging on to her bachelor's degree. Anderson reports that after first focusing only on the more narrow certificate program in accounting at Yuba College, she decided to complete the general education program for her associate's degree. Now, with that degree finished, she is taking anthropology just to see where it leads her. "I have considered going on to UC Davis, but I'm not sure. One thing that I know is that I will continue to go to school. I'm not done," she says. Departments interested in the internship program should contact Deb Weimerskirch, Temporary Employment Pool/Career Clerical Pool manager, at 752-0877.