Washington Gas
We are a utility that provides natural gas to over 850,000 customers in the Washington, DC area and have participated in the TRiP program for the past couple of years. The TRiP program has provided us with a ready source of experienced workers who have both a strong technology training as well as an understanding of our corporate needs. We have had a very good experience with the TRiP program and look forward to a continued relationship with the TRiP program as a source of qualified IT interns that will contribute to the future success of our company.

Lynne McKenzie Brown
Human Resources Consultant
Washington Gas
www.washingtongas.com
January 23, 2002

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Kelley Drye and Warren LLP
I have experienced the TRiP program from two perspectives. Not only am I a graduate of the first class, but I have used subsequent classes as a source of employees on numerous occasions. In both roles I have nothing but praise for the entire program. The price is reasonable, and the curriculum is deep and varied.
I am currently the Manager of IT at the Washington DC office of Kelley Drye and Warren, LLP, a New York based law firm. Our IT department currently consists of four individuals, all alumni of the TRiP program. All of them started with us as interns, and all of them have proven to be a valuable full-time employees.
It is an understatement that the TRiP program has supplied us with qualified individuals. Technically, they possess the necessary skills to perform a large range of tasks but more importantly, the experience and maturity that these individuals bring to this firm allows me to trust their judgment. TRiP provides us with individuals that we know are able to learn and want to learn. The on thing I can not teach is attitude, and I have experienced nothing but positive can do attitudes from every TRiP student I have interviewed.
From a purely corporate standpoint, not having had to pay a cent to an employment agency for technical hires during the past three years has saved this firm a great deal of money and has won me praise from our corporate HR director among others. I can, without hesitation, guarantee that we will continue to look to TRiP as our source of qualified interns as our department expands in the future.

James Fortmuller
Manager IT
Kelley Drye and Warren LLP
www.kelleydrye.com
January 23, 2002

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Young Design, Inc.
YDI sells long-range, outdoor Wireless LAN systems that operate in the licensee-free radio bands. Our primary customers are Wireless Internet service providers. The TRiP program has been a source of several excellent networking Interns. During their Internship, we train them in the Wireless LAN technology adding to their basic knowledge of networking. The Intern program is also excellent since we get to see how they perform at the job and determine if we want to offer them a position here. So far, all of the Interns we that have worked here have stayed on as full time employees. The TRiP program has been a valuable resource and we intend to continue to look to them first to fill entry-level Networking positions.

Michael F. Young
President
Young Design, Inc.
www.ydi.com
January 28, 2002

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Blue Ridge Networks
Blue Ridge Networks is a technology company who provides Virtual Private Networking (VPN) to customers in both a service and product sale basis, and have participated in the TRiP program. The TRiP program has provided us with a ready source of experienced workers who have both a strong technology training as well as an understanding of our corporate needs. We have used TRiP workers in both our Customer Service Operations and software development areas. In each case, we ended up hiring the trainee after their appointed internship had expired. We have had a very good experience with the TRiP program and look forward to a continued relationship with the TRiP program as a source of qualified IT interns that will contribute to the future success of our company.

Maureen Gray
Manager Customer Operations
Blue Ridge Networks
www.blueridgenetworks.com
January 23, 2002

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Advanced Technology Systems
Andrew Spell serves as the project manager for Advanced Technology Systems' Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Internet support contract in Arlington, Virginia. His team works on web-content management and web applications hosted at www.fdic.gov, as well as research and development on web development tools. "The HR Department came to us to see whether we had any openings or needs for TRiP interns," Spell says. "Typically we have positions good for junior people with a mix of developing technical skills and other skills, such as the help desk and HTML or Visual Basic or database programming. We usually have interns doing a variety of things. It's a team environment-not a trial by fire. Each TRiP intern is assigned to a senior staff person, and skills are matched with specific positions. It's the norm to have senior people training junior people." Of the six people ATS has hired since partnering with TRiP three years ago, five are still with the company on various projects. "It doesn't make any sense for us to hire an intern for only three months and then hire someone new," Spell says. "We're looking for long-term people. It's a try-before-you-buy situation. Short-term hiring also defeats the purpose of the TRiP program." ATS looks at the background and interests of the TRiP intern. "Ideally, we want people who are self-motivated and who have a willingness to do whatever it takes," Spell says. "They have to be able to multitask and not get rattled by it." What is the difference between hiring a TRiP intern vs. a career techie? "A computer science whiz is often talented in a few key areas and looks to these for answers," Spell says. "A TRIP intern tends to look outside the box a lot of the time and brings new perspectives to a project. He/she knows that he/she doesn't know everything, and looks for answers outside of his/her comfort zones."

Andrew Spell
Project Manager
Advanced Technology Systems
www.atsva.com
August 12, 2001

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Dynamic Technology Systems, Incorporated
Actual work experience in the information technology field has become more and more difficult to find. Companies are looking for the experienced programmers. At Dynamic Technology Systems, our requirements can afford us the use of entry-level individuals. TRiP interns have rapidly become a major recruiting source. Students in TRiP gain a baseline knowledge of the fundamentals in the information technology field. Students from TRiP working at DTS are given the opportunity to expand their knowledge by working on real-world applications, such as, developing electronic forms and associated visual basic programs or applying SGML and XML codes and links to electronic publications. This program has been very successful as more than ninety percent of the interns have been offered full-time employment. Many of the former interns are now team leaders on current contracts. DTS provides TRiP interns the springboard opportunity into their information technology careers.

Eugene Sim, Director, Human Resources
Jean A. Nock, Jr., Division Manager, Electronic Solutions
Dynamic Technology Systems, Incorporated
www.dts-inc.com
August 15, 2001

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ENSCO, Inc.
ENSCO, Inc. is thrilled to be associated with the TRiP program. It serves as an excellent tool to recruit well-rounded, mature candidates with "real world" experience and a great work ethic that fit well with our company's goals and philosophy. Recently, we hired two very qualified candidates for our IS department. According to Ted Freeman, Director of Information Systems, "All of the candidates we interviewed were excellent and ENSCO could have benefited from any of them." The quality of the TRiP students has exceeded our expectations, and we look forward to a long and lucrative relationship with the program.

Vic Rossi
Recruiting Manager
ENSCO, Inc.
www.ensco.com
August 12, 2001

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Fairfax County Public Library
The Fairfax County Public Library has enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with the NVCC TRiP program. We learned about the TRiP program from David Molchany, the County's CIO, in the Fall of 1998. Our first intern was a member of the TRiP 3 class, which covered winter 1998. He went on to work full-time as a Web developer for Bell Atlantic. We have had one intern from each of the succeeding TRiP classes. The diverse employment backgrounds of the interns, combined with their newly learned and honed technology skills, contribute significantly to the Library's Internet Services Department. Interns work exclusively in Web development on both the Library's award-winning Internet and Intranet sites. Drawing on their introduction to HTML from classes at TRiP, they begin with straight text page development. They progress to tables and cascading style sheets, graphical elements including scanning and preparing gif and jpg files, and creating PDF files. Based on projects in development in the Department during their internship, they may modify existing JavaScripts, populate databases for a new Active Server Page application, or do the first cut design of new content areas on one of the sites. The TRiP students who have interned with the Library are dedicated professionals, who invest themselves in putting into practice the Web technology skills they have learned in classes, and in building on those skills to progress in a "real world" work setting. We have found that the time required to acclimate them to our workflows and to teach additional Web development skills needed for the work done here have been well worth it. The time from the beginning of the internship to the conclusion passes speedily. We are always delighted for them, but sad to see them on their way, at the conclusion of the internship.

Lydia Patrick
Coordinator, Internet Services
Fairfax County Public Library
www.co.fairfax.va.us/library
August 20, 2001

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Keyware Technologies & Solutions
Keyware Solutions, LLC is a biometrics information systems integrator providing technology solutions to the medical and law enforcement industries in both the public and private sectors. For the past three years, our company has been an active participant in the TRiP program, presenting to TRiP classes, serving on industry panels and providing internships to students. Our experience has been one of mutual benefit. The TRiP program provides Keyware with experienced workers who have strong technology training and an understanding of our customer market. We have had excellent results from our participation in the TRiP program, hiring most of our interns as full-time employees once their internships were completed. We look forward to a continuing relationship with the college and the TRiP program.

Doreen Wells
HR Administrator
Keyware Technologies & Solutions
www.keyware.com
August 16, 2001

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