I Thought Students Wanted Certificates. Then One Student Asked Me This.

I was talking to a final-year CS student who needed an internship to graduate.

I assumed his biggest concern was the certificate.

It wasn't.

His first question was:

"Will I actually get to build something real?"

That question exposed a problem I couldn't ignore.

Students need internships to meet college requirements.

Companies want experienced candidates.

Yet many internships are built around mock projects, repetitive tasks, and certificates that don't prove real-world ability.

Everyone gets a certificate.

Few get experience.

So I'm building ProofAura. https://www.proofaura.com/

Instead of training projects created for interns, students contribute to real projects that need to be built. Their work is tracked, verified, and reflected in a certificate backed by actual contributions.

Still validating the idea.

Students: What's the most frustrating part of finding an internship?

Founders: Would you trust interns with real product work? Why or why not?

Curious if this problem is bigger than I think.