Re:We did it at Howard University. (Score 1)

We sure did! I too am a graduate of the CLDC lab at Howard U. To say that, "The skills I learned there were invaluable" is understating it!! We were working for $5 bucks an hour and doing it because there was always new and exciting stuff to learn. We took it very seriously and still managed to have fun.

Unknown to us at the time, but we were developing skills that the industry was craving! We were already maintaining mission critical servers, in a fast paced environment and were relative experts with, then complex technology like, sendmail, DNS, networking & perl scripting.

Unlike a summer internship, you are able to get continous work experience by working while you are in school and break the 'catch 22' of not having adequate work experience.

I remember getting my first job as a sysadmin at SGI. I couldn't believe they were paying me big buck$ to do exactly the same thing I was doing for $5 per hour. The work seemed so easy, it felt like I was stealing!

Student run IT systems is a win win for everyone. The school gets readily available and inexpensive labor. The students get work experience and earn a little money for books and beer. The school gets a great rep for putting out quality talent and the big companies keep coming back for more.