Firm offers tech internships for high school students

AAR Aircraft Component Services in Garden City, which repairs military and commercial aircraft parts -- from coffee pots to engines -- generally keeps a low profile. Not on Friday.

At the company's offices, television cameras circled. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) walked in the front door, and visitors, including about a dozen Westbury High School students, swarmed through the building on a rare tour.

Why the fuss? ACS, as it is known on the Island, will be the first of some 30 aviation and technology companies here to begin -- this spring or summer -- new internship programs for high school students. The programs were organized by the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. The students to be selected are enrolled in the Science, Technology Engineering and Math  classes at the Cradle.

The internships at ACS, a unit of Wood Dale, Ill.-based AAR Corp., were announced by Gillibrand, who has been promoting such education for a long time.

"We have to focus on this generation," Gillibrand said, turning to the Westbury students standing behind her at a company work space. Those students hope to be selected for internships at ACS.

"The key for our educational system is to explain how science and math can help people solve problems," Gillibrand said. "You can cure cancer. You can have clean water in your communities." And the largest issue of all at the moment, she said, is job creation. STEM programs, Gillibrand said, will lead to jobs in the higher-paying technology industry.

Haven't heard of ACS? You're not alone. The company, which has about 225 employees, does not go in for much publicity, said its finance director, Robert Troiano, who is also a Democratic Nassau County legislator from Westbury. "We are the greatest secret on Long Island," he said.

ACS general manager Sam Gorman said the company is likely to hire two to five student interns. ACS has an ongoing intern program, and in the past, Gorman said, some have been hired full time.

Cradle executive director Andrew Parton said 30 aviation and tech companies have agreed to some type of program to hire interns. ACS was first to sign up, he said.