JWU gets to work on internships with new $4M fund

DUMAS
DUMAS

(Updated, Oct. 1, 1 p.m.)
With an ever-increasing focus on a so-called gap in skills that willing employers complain today’s emerging workforce just doesn’t have, an emphasis on in-school job training has accelerated the already established benefit of college internships.
But with college costs rising right along with that trend, there is a fear that some students may have to turn down what otherwise might be a perfect-fit internship if it isn’t a paid position and they rely on income to offset their tuition and living costs.
A new program at Johnson & Wales University aims to aid those students and further encourage them to pursue an off-campus education that best would benefit their future career plans. The university has created an annual $4 million fund to provide stipends to students for unpaid internships.
“It was truly a monumental decision, because it is a serious amount of funding. We feel this will have a direct impact on their learning and potential for career success,” said Maureen Dumas, vice president of experiential education and career services. “It gives more opportunity to a student to get that exposure to industry.”
The fund stretches across all four JWU campuses in Providence, North Miami, Fla., Denver, Colo., and Charlotte, N.C., but Providence will receive, Dumas, probably the “lion’s share” of money because it is the largest campus.
About 70 percent of students with internships at JWU in Providence take them unpaid. This year 2,400, or just under 22 percent, of the campus’ 11,000 undergraduate students will have an internship.
That’s a 14 percent spike over last year, when the stipend program first became available.
Students are eligible for the $1,500 stipend twice within their academic career at JWU and can apply it to internships during any semester, regardless of whether the position garners them course credit.
The concern over access to complimentary internships for students isn’t limited, of course, to Johnson & Wales and the discussion over compensation goes beyond stipends and financial feasibility.
Patricia Goff, associate director of the Center for Career Education at Providence College, said there is a “nationwide” debate over fair compensation for internship positions.
The U.S. Department of Labor in 2010 revised criteria under the Fair Labor Standards Act to determine whether interns would be paid minimum wage and overtime for their work. The internship must meet six legal criteria if the participating student does not get paid, including determination that training is similar to that given in an education environment.
“We’re all watching it really closely. It’s a gray area. On the flip side, there are really quality unpaid internships that students are willing to do to get the experience,” Goff said. “One thing [PC doesn’t] have right now is that type of fund [as JWU] but it’s something we’re looking into. We are very serious about looking at how we might raise funds for that.”
Seventy-five percent of PC’s class of 2012 held an internship at some time during their four-year stay there. Seventy-five percent of internships held within the academic year were unpaid and 33 percent of those held during the summer were unpaid.
Though at the bulk of area schools an internship isn’t a graduation requirement, they are strongly encouraged across departments and majors through a variety of academic channels, from career centers to advisers and faculty guidance.
Pre-career training isn’t lost on today’s students, either, who have grown up within an economic downturn and are not immune to the competitive environment they may face upon graduation.
“I will tell you, internships are among the first things entering students ask me about,” said Andrew Simmons, director of the Center for Careers and Life After Brown at Brown University.
Simmons said the university doesn’t officially track internship participation, because volunteer positions, research-assistant stints and faculty collaboration could count as viable resume-building experiences as internships.
Brown has two internship-funding sources that Simmons said are competitive. One is a funded research program for faculty-collaborated research and the other is for students on financial aid who want to take on an unpaid internship.
“We usually have many more applications than funding slots,” he said.
Rhode Island School of Design students may face additional hurdles in their internship pursuits strictly because of the nature of their studio-heavy coursework, which is time-consuming and leads to many students taking full-time summer internships.
“That’s what makes it even more challenging for us,” said Greg Victory, director of career services. “The reality is that students should have some sort of hands-on experience to round the [learning] experience. If they are away [during the summer], they have more flexibility but they need support to underwrite [it].” In RISD’s class of 2011, 72 percent of students took an internship of some kind during their stay there.
The school last June announced the six inaugural recipients of the Maharam STEAM Fellowship in Applied Art and Design that provides stipends of up to $5,000 for select internships within a government agency or nonprofit organization. The program will last for four more years.
“That’s helping us build a model to secure other funding sources to provide stipends for students,” Victory said. “That’s an area we are very much focused on.”
The University of Rhode Island in South Kingstown offers several scholarships that students can use for unpaid learning. The university also works with students to create learning goals and outcomes for professional development, according to Kim Washer, director of the office of experiential education and community engagement.
“Kudos to Johnson & Wales for having that opportunity. I think there [also are] other ways in which [to help students] if there’s not the dollars to back it,” Washer said. “We’re all thinking of ways of creatively helping students to engage.”
Bryant University in Smithfield estimates that about 35 percent of its students take an internship for credit. Barbara Gregory, associate director/manager of academic internships at the university’s Amica Center for Career Education, said there are many more students doing internships that don’t offer credits, whether those are paid or unpaid.
The school is developing and researching a stipend/scholarship program for summer nonprofit internship opportunities that should be instituted for summer 2013.
There also are scholarships students can apply to internships.
“We are having such a war in the field of the paid or unpaid internship and what’s more valuable,” Gregory said. “When it comes right down to it, the value of the internship is for the sake of the student’s learning. I’m here, firmly planted, to tell students there are employers out there who want your talent, your knowledge, and want to help you learn about their industry.” •

Greg Victory’s name was original misprinted as Greg Victor.

No posts to display