Price Hicks, the winner of four Emmys for her work in public television, has seen the frequency of internships in the television industry grow from the rare into the expected. "I'm amazed at how corporate America has embraced internships," says Hicks, who is now Director of Educational Programs and Services for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles (the people who award the Emmys). "Today they are essential. You must have familiarity with the workplace."

"An internship is a contact," Hicks tells Vault.com. "I don't know how anyone gets in without super contacts." Of course, Hicks, who runs the Academy?s internship program, makes sure to point out the ?necessary but not sufficient? rule of contacts: "Contacts don?t help you unless you have something to bring to the table." The television industry requires work experience, and specifically, experience in the industry?s capital city: "You need to move to LA and get along at a high pressure time of the year. It's making a commitment to learning how to live in Los Angeles."

Of the Academy internship program, Hicks says, "We are not in the business of announcing star turns, we?re in the business of building careers. Our internships are career builders." But Hicks warns for interns that "you don't go right from the mailroom to being Steven Spielberg." Success stories from the program have included the likes of Brannon Braga, a former Star Trek writer and now a producer. Within the program each intern is mentored by a former intern, and interns often help and network with each other. "I've never known one intern not to help each other," Hick says. The organization tries to stay in touch with former interns. "The door is always open for them," she says. The Academy publishes a newsletter, and an address list. Occasionally, Hicks gets calls from former interns looking for career advice."We answer every phone call," Hicks says. ~ Hicks advice to interns is to always be nice and be helpful, "For everybody: that's a ground rule." When dealing with celebrities Hicks says, "Don't fawn, don't ogle, and don't ask for autographs. The informal protocol is that you don't go off and talk to talent unless they talk to you first, especially as they prepare to go onstage, when they are trying to focus on the task at hand. "The time I always had with to chat with celebrities was when they were in the makeup room," Hicks says.

To keep the participating companies who host the interns involved in the program, the Academy throws a luncheon for them in May every year. "It's a chance for them to all get to know each other," Hicks says, "for them to get an idea of how important they are to the program."