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Comerica Bank 'Graduates' More Golightly IT Interns

Comerica Bank has "graduated" another six IT interns from its longstanding program with the Detroit Public Schools Golightly Career and Technical Center.

Comerica began its relationship with Golightly's Academy of Finance 20 years ago, adding finance talent to its offices. It began working with the center's IT Academy 12 years ago.

According to Bobby Burton, vice president of client production services at Comerica, the bank doesn't pull any punches -- it throws the interns right into the thick of the bank's internal operations.

"We have the students work in our field support department," he said. "We're doing a major technology refresh right now. This summer we had them working in everything from tape management to hands-on desktop support."

The students do everything from resolving problem tickets to using software to conduct trend analyses to preparing and delivering equipment for colleagues. And they work a full five-day week all summer, and get paid.

In fact, student Tenisha Brintley said the biggest surprise for her in the program was the size of her paycheck. "I hadn't thought it would be as much as I received, but I enjoyed it because I worked hard for it," she said.

Of the program, Bradley said, "I think it's great. I have learned so much, I have met so many different people throughout Comerica."

Fellow intern Bre'a Harris agreed. "It's a good opportunity," she said. "I learned so much that I didn't know about computers."

Brintley plans to attend either Oakland University or Baker College and get a degree in IT or information security. Harris plans to attend Miami University or Saginaw Valley State University with a double major in pre-medicine and IT.

And maybe, just maybe, they'll wind up back at Comerica. After all,  Comerica's vice president of wealth and institutional management Carol Huckleby worked as a Comerica intern more than 30 years ago and has been there ever since.

(c) 2010, WWJ Newsradio 950. All rights reserved.

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