Without thinking much about it, Blake took the form and filled it out.

These days, you can find Blake, a junior at Lafayette High School, writing 3-D visualization software to help geologists better study and analyze data.

"It has been a really big opportunity," said Blake, the youngest intern at UL's Center for Business and Information Technologies. "I get to network with all the people at UL."

The Center for Business and Information Technologies is providing student interns the opportunity to take part in a "laddered" mentoring program, explained Becnel.

"It is a collaboration among three different high schools, five high school students, high school faculty, UL of Lafayette undergraduates, UL of Lafayette graduates, and UL of Lafayette faculty," said Becnel, who is learning about how she can better prepare her students in the classroom.

The students have been paired with research associates from the Center for Business and Information Technologies to work on five projects.

"The idea was to integrate and build a laddered mentoring program," said Ramesh Kolluru, director of the Center for Business and Information Technologies. "We do a lot of work with businesses around the state. ... We want them to get a flavor for entrepreneurship."

It has been 30 years since a Fortune 500 company came to Louisiana, so Kolluru wants the state to grow its own businesses.

"They are working with high-tech entrepreneurial startup companies," said Mark Smith, a UL college of business professor and director of business strategy. "They are going to work on geology. We have projects in geology. We have projects in medicine. We have projects in graduate student enrollment. We have a project that is a Web-design tool. We have a research project in workforce development."

Students are being paid with funds from a National Science Foundation grant, he said.

"The number one thing is just seeing what really goes on in the work place and being able to apply what they learned and see that it is useful," said Nicholas Ruiz, 24, a research associate at the UL center, who is assisting students.

Kiashia Brown, 17, said she has a better appreciation for what she is learning in class.

"You see people hit a button and it does something, but you don't know what they do to make it work," said Kiashia, who is working on database programs.

High school students are getting on-the-job training all over the parish.

Carencro High student Tegra Chevalier is learning interviewing skills, customer interaction and other key skills this summer.

"We just wanted to provide an opportunity," said Brian Leger, marketing director for the Lafayette Schools' Federal Credit Union. "She is working in the marketing department."

The student will create a promotional video for the credit union, Leger said.

"She is trying to put some stuff together and she will be doing some filming later on," he said. "She will conduct some interviews with some of our managers and staff members and our clients."

The student will put in 180 hours of work in about five weeks, Leger said.