I noticed a pattern twenty years ago that still frustrates students and businesses today. If you want the job, you need experience. If you need experience, you need a job. This catch-22 has created a persistent gap between education and employment that traditional systems haven't solved.

Over my two-decade career in workforce development, corporate training, and learning design, I've watched generation after generation face the same challenge. Students invest in degrees but graduate without the practical experience employers demand. Meanwhile, small businesses that could provide valuable learning opportunities lack the resources to create traditional internship programs.

This disconnect sparked the idea for Campus to Commerce, a nonprofit organization that connects students with small and medium-sized businesses through micro-internships. The solution wasn't immediately obvious, but the problem was crystal clear.

Why Traditional Internships Fail Both Sides

Traditional internships are concentrated in certain industries. Medical, finance, law, business. These sectors are saturated with opportunities while other industries remain underserved. Yet nearly 50% of the American workforce works for small businesses that typically can't afford to run internship programs.

The irony? Most employees will tell you their best work experiences came from small or medium businesses, not large corporations where they often feel overworked, undervalued, and underpaid. The talent that could make the biggest impact in small businesses rarely gets the chance to work there.

Students face their own challenges. Many need flexibility that traditional six-month internships don't offer. Others study in fields where internships are scarce. Some attend community colleges or technical programs that lack the career development resources of four-year universities.

I figured there had to be a better way to connect these two groups who needed each other but couldn't find the right bridge.

Micro-Internships as the Missing Link

The solution we developed centers on micro-internships. These are short-term, project-based opportunities lasting two to eight weeks. They're focused on specific deliverables that create real value for businesses while giving students concrete experience they can put on their resumes.

What makes our approach different is our focus on skills rather than industries. I'm not interested in matching a finance student with a finance company. I'm interested in matching a student's skill set with a company's needs.

A small business could be a food truck, a retail shop, or an insurance agency. Regardless of industry, they all need help with similar things: web development, workflow optimization, marketing strategy, social media content, or data research. By focusing on these universal needs, we open up more opportunities for both students and businesses.

Building Technology That Makes Connections

To make these matches effectively, we built an AI-driven system that helps businesses define the scope, objectives, and deliverables for each project. The system ensures compliance with state and federal regulations while creating a structured internship experience.

Once a business defines their project, our AI matches student profiles and skill sets to these opportunities. Students can then apply for projects they've been matched with, knowing they have the skills to succeed.

This structured approach creates what I call "actionable" experience. When interviewing for jobs later, students can clearly articulate what problem they solved, how they implemented the solution, and what results they achieved. These concrete accomplishments make them more credible candidates.

The results speak for themselves. Students who participate in micro-internships are 85% more likely to obtain a job when they finish their degree. We've seen students like a recent finance major who completed a data analysis project for a company and impressed them so much they offered her a full-time position.

Changing Mindsets About What Internships Can Be

Our biggest challenge has been changing how businesses think about internships. Many small business owners assume they can't afford interns or think of internships as grunt work like data entry or answering phones.

I recently met with a company who wanted an intern to enter client information into their new CRM system. I suggested a different approach: instead of hiring someone for data entry, what if the intern created a solution to automate the workflow? That way, when client information comes in, it automatically enters the CRM and only needs to be audited.

This shift in thinking transforms internships from temporary help to lasting business improvements. It also creates more meaningful experiences for students who want to apply their education to real challenges.

The Power of Continuous Feedback

Another unique aspect of our program is our focus on continuous feedback and mentorship. Throughout the internship, businesses provide weekly feedback to students, and we collect evaluations from both parties.

This approach benefits everyone involved. Students learn to receive and implement feedback early in their careers. Business owners practice giving structured feedback and coaching, skills that many haven't developed.

I've learned throughout my career that great managers create great employees, while bad managers create bad employees. By fostering proper feedback and communication early in students' careers and business owners' management journeys, we develop better managers and better employees.

Most people won't learn these skills until they're deep into their careers, either because they finally had a good mentor or accumulated enough negative experiences to change their approach. Why not start earlier?

Redefining Workforce Development

My vision for Campus to Commerce goes beyond connecting students and businesses. I want to redefine how we approach workforce development altogether.

Instead of letting large corporations dictate what workforce development looks like, I want to empower communities to develop their own talent. Students should see that opportunities exist in their own backyards, not just at big-name companies.

The more we enable communities to grow their own workforce, the better prepared that workforce will be. Local businesses will thrive and provide opportunities they couldn't before.

This vision led me to pivot from my original strategy of partnering with educational institutions to focusing on businesses instead. Through conversations with university career departments, I realized there's a fundamental disconnect in how education and business view the purpose of learning.

Higher education often sees education as self-improvement, while businesses view it as a means to solve industry problems. By aligning with the business perspective, we've found more opportunities to create meaningful experiences for students.

Looking Forward

As we approach our first anniversary in July, we're excited about several initiatives. We're developing partnerships at the city and state level, where our program can complement existing job training programs that face the same experience gap we're addressing.

We're also launching a fundraising event called the Solve It Challenge, where student teams will compete to solve real business problems in marketing and strategy, systems and automation, or web and digital presence. The winning team receives a cash prize, while participating businesses enter a raffle to win the solution for their problem.

We're always seeking sponsors and donors who can help us create more opportunities for students and business solutions for small businesses. With support, we can expand our impact and continue building bridges between education and employment.

The gap between education and employment has persisted for too long. Through micro-internships that benefit both students and small businesses, we're creating a more accessible, flexible path to meaningful work experience. Together, we can redefine workforce development and strengthen our communities from the ground up.