When Lauren Berger left her job as an assistant at Century City’s Creative Artists Agency in 2008, she was armed with $5,000 and a vision: helping college students develop their dream careers.

Seven years later, more than 5 million students have used Berger’s Toluca Lake firm, Intern Queen Inc., founded in 2009, to snag corporate internships, both paid and unpaid, as well as secure positions doing promotional work for campus marketing campaigns. Berger serves as Intern Queen’s chief executive.

Large corporations such as L’Oréal and Ford Motor Co. have listed internship openings on the firm’s website, in addition to numerous local businesses including Culver City ice-cream maker Coolhaus, Hollywood’s StyleHaul and Culver City’s Overbrook Entertainment.

Berger said she has mixed feelings about the debate swirling over the issue of intern pay. “Paid internships would make it difficult for them to offer many internships the way they used to,” she said.

Berger, who said she has not received any outside capital for the company, estimates that Intern Queen’s revenue will hit $1 million this year. The money comes from the more than 200 companies that pay to post internship openings on InternQueen.com.

“Because we’ve been around for seven years, I am able to see the long-term effects of my work,” she said. “I stay in touch with people who I placed five years ago and am proud I made a difference.”

– Elyse Glickman