Location: St.Louis

Employees: 170

Number of interns:4,600

Length of internship: 10 to 12 weeks, on average

Internship program created: 1970

What it does: Matches African-American, Latino, and Native-American students with internships at 400 companies nationwide.

Description of internship: After completing a detailed application process on the INROADS website, candidates are prepped on business etiquette, interviewing skills, and other ins and outs of corporate protocol in a two-hour session. Big-name corporations like Boeing, Ernst & Young, and General Electric then select their interns from the so-called 'Match Eligible' talent pool. The majority of INROADS students keep the same job for more than one semester. Monthly coaching sessions with INROADS representatives are a part of the process, and help assure sponsoring companies that the students are happy at work and keeping up their GPAs. "It keeps us bonded," says Doreen Wilburn-Smith, regional director of INROADS' New York office. (paid)

Notable perks: Training, personal mentoring, and mock interviews give INROADS interns one-on one attention long before their first day on the job. At their regular coaching sessions, INROADS students can easily bring up the issues of difficult bosses or unfulfilling projects to their mentors' attention. The organization devotes three Saturdays of each summer to general business training for its students, and awards a $5,000 INROADer of the Year scholarship to an older student who has shown active involvement in his or her community.

Why interns? Founder Frank C. Carr quit his executive-level job and conceived the program after hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Helping interns move on to permanent jobs -- and thus increasing minority presence in corporate America -- is the organization's top priority. "We do very little advertising," Wilburn-Smith says. "Companies usually seek us out because of the quality of our interns."

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