Career Services

Intern Success Stories - Criminal Justice

Mindy Garner held five jobs simultaneously while attending MSU Denver full time. Her jobs included a volunteer internship at Adams County Probation, where she now works in a full time career position.  One of two hires out of 100 applicants, Mindy credits her yearlong internship experience with giving her a competitive edge. She is just one of several current employees who started as interns.

Garner helps young offenders develop step-by-step plans to meet their probation goals.  In college, her own goals were unclear until she started taking criminal justice courses and found a mentor in Assistant Professor Mike Martinez, who urged her to get an internship.  Professor Martinez started his own career as a MSU Denver student intern with Denver District Court Probation.

In addition to clarifying her goals, Mindy discovered one of the other benefits of internships; they can and often do lead to full time career positions.