Summer Internships and Stipends Help Students Get Involved in The Professional World
Jules Goddet | April 6, 2023
The end of the semester is coming fast, and the summer is as well, meaning students will most likely have more free time available. This can be an opportunity for Warren Wilson College (WWC) students to use this time to participate in an internship in the United States or abroad.
Hannah Richardson is the director of career engagement and oversees all internships for students. She emphasizes the importance of completing an internship in order to get concrete skills in your major or an area of interest and develop an important network that will help you to get involved in the professional world after graduation.
“I think that Warren Wilson is really wonderful, but it's only so big,” Richardson said. “Internships are a great way to not only lean into something that you might want to try out and see if you're interested in it, but also to develop new skills in lots of ways you might get to live or learn in a different environment, and you just get to meet a lot of different people. Networking is such a key piece of building yourself. Both professionally, and kind of personally after college, 80% of jobs are found through networking. So if we can help a student build their network while they're in school through an internship, it's more likely they will be that much more successful finding a job after they graduate.”
Kat Wetherall, a WWC senior student, heard about the possibility of completing internships thanks to the internship fair on March 16, where she met the supervisor of Homeward Bound.
“The organization Homeward Bound seeks to provide relief to those that are unhoused in Asheville,” Wetherall said. “They provide many services including warm meals, showers, lockers, a mailroom and a safe place to get out of the elements for a few hours. They also offer case managers to those who have been unhoused for a year, they work with them to get them in a house.”
Wetherall is an expressive arts major, and, according to her, doing this internship will help her future career in different ways.
“Although the position is relative to social work, I believe that this experience will help me understand people more and push me to be a better listener,” Wetherall said.
Rebecca Pahoresky, a WWC senior double-majoring in social work and expressive arts, had also different takeaways from the internship she made last summer at Heinz Field Farm, a non-profit organization for adults with brain injuries.
“This internship was utilized as part of my capstone research project, for my expressive arts therapy practicum,” Pahoresky said. “It was vital for me to get the major in my college. I've definitely added and enhanced my expressive arts therapy knowledge, and what kind of work can be done in that field specifically.”
The process in order to find an internship is different for every student depending on where they start, but the procedure is about the same for everyone, starting by learning to know the student looking for an internship.
“Generally, we start thinking about some of the needs of the student,” Richardson said. “Where can they live? Where do they want to be? How much money do they need? Do they need to get paid? We start also considering what their interests are. What is their area of study? What are some skills they might want to learn.”
Then, the Center for Integrated Advising Coaches (CIAC) team starts looking for organizations and programs that can fit that student’s needs.
“We have the student reach out to that organization, and maybe either apply for the internship that the organization already has, or reach out and say, ‘I would like to have an internship with you, is that possible,’” Richardson said.
Finally, after the organization’s decision, Richardson and the student can start the paperwork, or not.
“If the organization says yes, that student then starts the internship paperwork with me, and it's all through a handshake,” Richardson said. “ I then reach out to the site supervisor to introduce myself and I make sure to copy the student on that connection, and after that, when it's kind of off and running, I will check in with the student and supervisor throughout the experience. But really, there's no follow-up. Some students do take an internship reflection course with me after or during their experience, but that's only if they need or want credit.”
For Wetherall, finding an internship was not complicated.
“I requested to have a volunteer day to see if I would like it,” Wetherall said. “I spoke with the intern manager, Kate, about how to do an internship and she was more than happy to give me all the information I needed. The next day I made an appointment with Richardson, the college’s internship coordinator, and before our meeting, I filled out the form to receive the $2,000 stipend so that I wouldn’t have to worry about working and could focus on the internship. During my appointment with [Richardson], I was able to work out what forms to fill out, basically all on Handshake now, and what the process looked like for summer housing. It seems that applying for the stipend and working more hours at the internship puts you at a priority for housing.”
For Pahoresky, the process was not difficult either. She worked on the Community Engagement Crew, which gave her the opportunity to learn about the summer internship program.
“I found my internship through working,” Pahoresky said. “I was on the Bonner Crew, which is like the Community Engagement Crew. When I saw the school did stipend internships for the summer, I was interested in continuing that engagement with that organization. So I signed up and applied for it, and I got that stipend. So I was able to stay for the summer and do that.”
Internships can last as long as the student and the organization want, but to be counted as being a WWC approved internship, it has to be at least six weeks, and 80 hours. While Pahoresky worked every Wednesday all summer, Wetherall will work 35 hours a week for two months. iInternships can be paid or not depending on the organization’s will, and the hours are swapped with students’ work program hours, to still get paid. However, it is possible to get financial help from WWC for housing and other needs in certain circumstances.
“We encourage organizations to pay their interns because a student's time and talent are absolutely financially worth it,” Richardson said. “Also, we know that some students want to work with organizations that don't already have pre-designed internship programs, in which case that student might likely not be paid. During the school year, we allow them to swap those hours with their work program hours, so they get paid like they're on the work program for their internship. For us, it is more of a requirement that if the organization is a for-profit, organization, or business or a company, that they really are paying their intern. Once again, I don't have any control over that.”
Timing is important when it comes to choosing your internship, according to Richardson. While not every freshman or sophomore should apply now, juniors and seniors are encouraged by CIAC to seek internships now if they have not done so.
“I definitely encourage first and second year students, unless they are really highly focused on something, to not do an internship yet,” Richardson said. “Much of an internship is pairing the theory and the practice that you've learned on campus with an organization and first and second year students oftentimes haven't had enough of that experience yet to make it really a fulfilling internship. Our most successful interns have generally been juniors and seniors.”
Pahoresky, in the same way, emphasized the importance of going out of the walls of WWC, meeting new people and expanding horizons.
“Go for it,” Pahoresky said. “Anybody at the school is welcome to take an internship wherever, in their field of expertise, to enhance their resume and help them further their education. So taking advantage of the internship can really help launch you after you graduate, to find a job quickly.”
Even though Wetherall has only volunteered once so far, she agreed with the advantages that an internship gives to a student.
“I was surprised at how out of my comfort zone I was, but it was what I was looking for,” Wetherhall said. “It was a way to grow and to learn.”
According to Richardson, students from many different fields apply for internships, with the majority coming from environmental studies and business. It is open for anyone who has at least a 2.0 GPA and seeks to acquire new skills and get a more concrete understanding of their major. About 50-80 students are doing internships during the summer and around 70 during the school year. If one is interested in having an internship, reach out to Richardson a few months in advance at hrichardson@warren-wilson.edu.