Internship Funding Program – Leigh Ann: A special episode to tell you about the Career Center’s Internship Funding Program. Listen to the Career Center’s own Leigh Ann Waring to talk about the program.

Stephanie: Hi there. You're listening to GEAR UP: the Duke Career Center's student-produced podcasts showcasing real student summer internship experiences. My name is Stephanie and today we have a special episode to tell you all about the Career Center's Internship Funding Program.

Leigh Ann: My name's Leigh Ann Waring and I'm an assistant director in the Career Center. I work with employers who are seeking students as interns, but I also oversee the Internship Funding Program for the office.

Stephanie: And what is the Internship Funding Program?

Leigh Ann: Great question. It is a stipend-based program where students can apply for funding to help offset costs that they might have if they're doing an unpaid or low-paying internship over the summer.

Stephanie: What does it include, really? Can just like students just get the money and can put it towards like, anything? Or logistically, how does it work?

Leigh Ann: Yeah. So it's for any type of expense that might be a new expense that they have; any type of living costs they might have as a result of doing an unpaid or low-paying internship. So things like their rent, transportation costs - and that could be like a one time plane ticket to and from their location of their internship, or it could also be like day-to-day commute, like a subway car or something along those lines. They can ask for coverage for their food, utilities, any special type of expenses that they might have, like a visa or any type of vaccinations that they may have to get as a result of doing their internship. So really, it's those living expenses that we cover.

Stephanie: And any student that's doing any sort of unpaid internship is eligible to apply?

Leigh Ann: So the program is for first-year students through first-semester seniors. So unfortunately, graduating seniors are not eligible, just because they won't be a student over the summer.

Stephanie: That's fair.

Leigh Ann: But yeah. So the students do need to be in good academic standing and good conduct standing. The unpaid or low-paying internship does have to be two hundred and forty hours for the summer, and there's some other requirements too that go along with that in terms of the type of supervision that they'll and intern that they'll receive. The program covers what we call unpaid, which is zero compensation, or low paying internships, which is kind of a little more of a loose definition. Typically we say $1,500 for the semester or the summer. However, if a student's going to a high cost of living area like New York City or Washington, D.C., we obviously take that in consideration. So if they're receiving more than $1,500 for their internship, but they still have a financial need, we would definitely take in consideration of that, too. And it's also open to supervised research projects.

Stephanie: Oh, okay. Oh, that's huge.

Leigh Ann: Yeah.

Stephanie: So what's the application process like, usually? Is it just fill out like one application and then receive a decision?

Leigh Ann: Yeah. So it is a competitive application. So students have to do three different steps. The first step is they have to view an online virtual information session, which is available off of our website. Or they could have attended an in-person session. Unfortunately at this point, the in-person sessions are finished for the semester. But all the same information's covered on the virtual session. So they have to review that and then fill out a Qualtrics survey that just shows that they reviewed it. The second step would be they have two things that they have to fill out that's on our web site. They're both Qualtrics surveys. One is their application, and the other is a employer information form that they have to provide to their employer to fil