Internships for Undergrads

NerdMom88
Mon, 30 Jan 2017 19:25:00 +0000

I hear a lot of bashing about unpaid internships, even at not-for-profit organizations. As an intern coordinator at a small not-for-profit, I can tell you that we watch every penny and that what we do with our donor’s money matters to them and is scrutinized by them. It’s difficult for some organizations to find the money in their already-tight budget, and even more difficult to justify allotting it to internships when frequently, we could get a volunteer to do the same tasks. (I’m not saying that interns and internships aren’t valuable to both parties; just presenting the situation from a financial perspective.)

In fact, we could just call everyone a volunteer but we know it looks better on a student’s resume to have an internship AND our staff feel strongly about mentoring them. So we save the tasks that require training and staff guidance, and that will provide valuable experience. We package those tasks into semester projects, set up a framework of accountability for both student and supervisor, require a regular schedule, and call it an internship.

We do work hard to get internships subsidized by external entities when we can – we have an agreement with one department in a local university that provides stipends equal to the amount of course credit for students who major in their department and accept an internship from us. It’s not payment, but it does help.

P.S. my D15 is still looking for a summer internship. If she finds one that is at a not-for-profit, H and I have already agreed to cover her costs so she can have the experience.