Graduate Student Internship Program
Interested in supporting or offering an internship or fellowship for graduate students?
Contribute to the CLA Graduate Student Internship Program
Contact Mackenzie Sullivan, Director of CLA Graduate Career Services, if you'd like to hire a doctoral or master's degree student.
Overview
This program offers graduate students the opportunity to gain experience in a profession beyond the tenure track, reflect upon what is important to them in a career, explore how their academic training might translate into various career options, and build additional skills that will translate across sectors and jobs. This program is geared towards our research-based students to enable them to explore non-faculty careers and provides funding for low-paid (or possibly unpaid) internships that students would otherwise be unable to accept.
The CLA Graduate Internship Program is a small cohort program enrolling and funding 10-15 graduate students each year. As part of the program, students will attend 6-8 workshop sessions during the fall and spring semesters, collaboratively work in small groups, and complete assignments. Students will receive group and individual support from the Director of Graduate Student Career Services, and guidance through the process of exploring what they value in a career, exploring their interests, evaluating career options conducting conversations with alumni, practicing presenting themselves to employers outside of academia, and mock interviews and negotiations.
The annual program concludes each summer with students finding, applying for, and securing an internship. View examples of previous internships.
Student Applications
A call for applications is issued each year during the summer, and students will receive an acceptance by the middle of September. Students will be asked to apply by submitting a short proposal addressing questions including why they are seeking an internship and what they hope to learn or gain by participating in the program, what experience, if any, they have seeking jobs outside of faculty roles (including attending workshops, etc., and their personal experiences), and what kinds of internships and careers interest them. Students will also submit a broad-based resume or CV. We are interested in all of your experiences, including (but not limited to) volunteering in your own, or other, communities, paid work, service, teaching, and/or research experience. To be notified of the call for applications, sign up for this Google Group: Career & Professional Development Opportunities for CLA Graduate Students.
Funding
If students complete the workshop series, all assignments, and secure an internship for the summer, they will receive funds that will support them during their internship. The program goal is for each student to complete an internship of ten weeks in duration at 20 hrs/week for which they will be paid the standard CLA graduate researcher rate ($6,000 for summer 2024). Students will also be eligible to have their summer health benefits covered by the college if they are not already receiving them.
In spring 2021, CLA launched a graduate student internship program to offer doctoral and research-based master’s students the opportunity to gain experience in a profession beyond a traditional tenure track position, explore how their academic training translates into various career options, and build skills that will translate across sectors and jobs.
To date, Graduate Career Services Director Mackenzie Sullivan worked with approximately 35 students via a series of workshops and related activities on pursuing career options beyond academia. While the immediate goal has been to provide outside work experience for students via summer internships, the program also trains students in how to conduct a job search effectively so that they are prepared to do so upon graduation.
The college provides fellowship funding to ensure that each student with an internship receives the standard graduate researcher salary, regardless of the ability of the employer to pay. This funding also has the benefit of allowing students to apply for a full range of internships, including low-paid (or possibly unpaid) positions in areas relevant to their doctoral experience.