When Tommy McCarthy, a student at Delaware County Community College (DCCC), was selected as a paid intern for the 2026 Delaware County Internship Program, working in county offices, he didn’t know he’d end up playing a pivotal role in a large network outage.
“Working alongside my colleagues on the outage was my favorite part of the internship. It was a fast-paced situation that was very rewarding to me,” he said.
A cybersecurity major, McCarthy became interested in computers when he was young and wanted to get into video games.
“I built a computer to play them. From there I became very interested in server technologies,” he said.
McCarthy landed his internship through DCCC’s Office of Cooperative Education and Internships and was honored alongside other interns at the Delaware County Courthouse in July 2026.
He added: “DCCC’s computer science programs are a great springboard for higher education given their deep networking with surrounding colleges and are a great place to get started. It’s been a terrific way to advance my computer science career and prepare for my next steps. My professors have been great and they really motivate me to succeed.”