Meet Paloma: “This Internship Changed My Life.”

Paloma Guerrero had no idea what she wanted after graduation. A presentation at the end of junior year changed that in about the time it took to give it.

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Paloma remembers the exact moment, and she remembers what it felt like on her face.

"I heard a presentation about internships and I will always remember that presentation because my eyes lit up," she says. "I was like, this is a perfect opportunity."

Before that, she was drifting. "I was really lost during high school. I had no clue what I wanted to do when I graduated." She was clear on only one thing: she was not going straight to college. What she needed was work, and a way in.

The program offered a structured gap year - not time off, but time spent building the things nobody teaches you in a classroom. In-class training covered professional resumes, professional emails, and the soft skills employers actually screen for. Then came the employer visits, where students go on site and meet the people doing the hiring.

Those made her nervous. Then the food companies came into rotation.

"That's where, okay, this is something I kind of actually want to do," she says. It got her excited, and it got her motivated to finish.

The interview at Costeaux is a scene she can still replay. They greeted her with a big smile - she brings that detail up unprompted, years later — and walked her into the same room she now works in. She was nervous, and she says so twice. She wanted the job.

The call came. They thought she was a good fit; the offer was hers if she wanted it.

"I told them yes right away."

Her mentor was the maintenance supervisor, who started her on the equipment: how to take it apart safely, how to clean it, how to put it back together. From there she moved into production and learned the pies end to end - the crusts, the fillings, the baking, the packaging. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the thing that actually mattered clicked.

"You have to show up every single day. It's a teamwork matter. You need to show up with a positive attitude."

She also figured out what she wanted to study, which was the question she couldn't answer a year earlier: business and food safety. When the internship ended, Costeaux hired her full time, and she enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College.

"I think this internship changed my life," Paloma says, "by giving me this great opportunity to work for an employer that will push me and support me throughout my education."

Ask her who else this is for and the answer comes without hesitation.

Her parents didn't want to watch her give up on her goals. Her father left his family in Mexico to come here so his children would have more than he did - and what he sees now is a daughter who isn't wasting it.

"He was proud that I'm taking advantage of what I have and I'm not taking it for granted."

Watch Paloma’s journey below!