Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer

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It’s time for me to sign-off for the spring semester, but the quiet will only be temporary.

Once again this summer, the UW-Whitewater Internships Blog will feature four students and their internships. Confessions of a Summer Intern will begin on June 4th and run each week through mid-August. Stay tuned!

With the spring semester coming to a close and summer starting, here are a few reminders from internship-land:

  • It isn’t necessarily too late to secure an internship for this summer. We still have new summer internships being posted on Hawk Jobs. Or at this point, you might start putting together a proposal for an internship position. Whatever you do, don’t give up on your search just yet.
  • If an internship wasn’t in the cards for this summer, start preparing for the future. Don’t forget that internships aren’t exclusive to the summer months – Consider a fall semester internship. Fall and spring internships tend to be a little less competitive. They are also super-part-time, as I like to say – 10 to 15 hours/week (you do want to find an internship that is at least 10 hours a week). If you are interested in earning credit for an internship, fall and spring are the ideal times for it. Also keep in mind that some employers hire for their summer internships during the fall. So if you want an internship next summer – Summer 2013 – be sure to mark your calendar and save the date for the 2012 Hawk Career Fair:
    • Wednesday, September 26, 2012
    • Noon to 4:00pm
    • Williams Center, Gym 1
  • Summer is the perfect time to do some career planning. Whether it’s developing your internship search strategy or just putting together your resume, summer provides enough downtime to get it done. Career & Leadership Development is open all summer, and scheduling an appointment is easy.
    • Stop by the office – UC 146
    • Call – 262-472-1471
  • If you do have a summer internship, don’t forget to apply to be UW-W Intern of the Month. The intern-of-the-month program runs September through May. Applications for September 2012 will be accepted until August 20th. If you have a great experience and did a great job, be sure to tell us about it!

Best of luck on finals and congratulations to all the graduates!

Intern Spotlight: Angela Sorkan ’14

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Angela Sorkan

Angela Sorkan, Sophomore (May 2014)
Major: Women’s Studies
Minor: Health Promotion
Internship: Shelter/Women’s Advocate Intern with the YWCA of Rock County

How did you find out about the internship? What interested you in the internship?

Last summer, I was enrolled in a Feminist Theories class and my professor forwarded an email from a staff member of the YWCA asking for volunteers in the Domestic Violence Shelter for Women. I emailed the staff member, went in the next week for a volunteer interview, filled out paperwork, and began volunteering in August.

I volunteered all fall semester and thought I would ask about internship opportunities. I emailed the staff member that I met with about volunteering and she forwarded me to one of the directors. I instantly started emailing her with curiosity about being a women’s advocate and asking what I could learn from those who run the shelter. I was curious about the legal side of things, the counseling, the life of the children – I had a lot of enthusiasm to learn. We met for an interview, talked about my background as a Certified Nursing Assistant and about my job working in a group home with individuals that have mental disabilities, and she said I had a lot of skills that would be helpful for working with women in the shelter. She offered me the internship that day in her office. It was honestly a dream come true for me, because this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Describe your internship experience.

I have taken charge of planning a county-wide volunteer recruitment event, booking meeting rooms at four different libraries in Rock County to host our recruitment events as well as putting together fliers to grab the attention of community members. My director and I will be presenting to the public how to become a volunteer and the benefits of volunteering!

I have also put together a tutoring program at the shelter for the children so they can stay caught up in school. I organized the program by using my best resources, my Sigma Sigma Sigma sisters, and we now have two to three girls here Monday through Thursday to help tutor the children in the shelter.

My most recent project is working on the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. This is the first time the YWCA has participated in this week, so I am thrilled to be organizing it. It is April 22nd-28th, and we will be focusing on this year’s theme, Extending the Vision, Reaching Every Victim. To participate in this event, we will be going to local places and hanging up resources that were sent by the National Center for Victims of Crime. This is what they aim for us to do, to reach out and spread resources. Also, I will be giving a presentation to all staff and families in the shelter on April 10th followed by tie-dying shirts here in the shelter for the staff, mothers, and children to wear for NCVR week.

Aside from that, I am here to help all staff with any projects they need help with. I am serving as a women’s advocate so when community members walk in with a crisis, I am here to assist. I plan fun-filled days for the women, such as a women’s dinner that I organized on March 10th with the women of the Asbury Church. We ordered Chinese take-out and had a volunteer watch their children so the women could have a night all to themselves!

I am serving as an intern here to help wherever needed, and I enjoy doing so.

What have you learned during your internship experience? How did this opportunity relate to your career goals?

This opportunity has made it absolutely clear to me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. There is no better feeling than walking out of this building everyday and thinking, “Today, I helped somebody, I made a difference.” I can see how much of a difference it has made helping tutor this kids who have been taken in and out of school several times a year. They need our help.

This internship has given me the opportunity to manage projects that I would have considered fearfully until now. I am gladly making phone calls and asking major companies for donations for projects that will benefit the women and children in this shelter. I will absolutely call the library to book a room for a volunteer event, because our volunteers here mean so much to us. This internship has taught me so much responsibility.

The most important thing this internship has showed me is that there are good people out there. People who are willing to donate their time, their money, their materialistic items, lend an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on. People who want to step up and eliminate racism, domestic violence, teen dating violence, cyber-bullying etc. There are so many good-hearted people that want to raise awareness and make a change, and that is incredibly eye-opening.

What advice would you give other students about internships?

GO FOR IT! If it’s appealing to you, go for it. Never hesitate to send that email or call someone asking about an internship opportunity. It could be life changing!

Don’t let unpaid internships NOT be an option. I couldn’t imagine if I had turned down this opportunity. Most of the time you can get school credit for it – We all know we aren’t getting paid to go to class, so if you aren’t getting paid for an internship, it shouldn’t automatically eliminate it as an option.

Look into several options and contact several people about internships. Just because you ask about one, doesn’t mean you’re tied to it. Make sure you are finding the right one for you. You want to find the one that makes you excited to wake up in the morning and go!

What did Angela’s supervisor have to say?

I have received very positive feedback from Angela, the mothers, and our Child-Family Advocate on the vast improvements the children have made in very little time from Angela’s efforts.

Angela has definitely become a valuable part of our team :)

Congratulations Angela on being selected as UW-Whitewater Intern of the Month for May 2012!

 

Are you having or have you had an outstanding internship experience like Angela? Tell employers, faculty, and, of course, fellow UW-W students what makes/made your internship experience so great! Be featured in the Intern Spotlight! To learn more, visit the UWW Intern of the Month Program page.

Be sure to check out past featured students’ stories as well!

From the Archives… Resource Spotlight: Idealist

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Originally published April 13, 2009

It’s been awhile since I highlighted a resource for your internship search; it’s about time I changed that. The first resource that I touched on was [Hawk Jobs], UW-Whitewater’s internship/job database. In this post, I want to highlight Idealist, a project of the nonprofit organization Action Without Borders.

Nonprofit organizations, charities, NGOs, government agencies, and universities all use Idealist to post internships. You can search for internship opportunities based on organizations’ area of focus, ranging from children and youth to economic development. The internships listed are located all across the United States and around the globe, with the bulk of opportunities located in the US. You can even perform an advanced search for opportunities and subscribe to an RSS feed of that search. You can then use a feed reader to get updates on new items that meet your search terms.

You can also find volunteer opportunities on Idealist. Volunteer work can be just as valuable as an internship, and it might be the primary way to obtain relevant experience as an undergraduate in some fields (ex. human services).

As I mentioned before, in addition to finding domestic opportunities, you can search for internships and volunteer work all over the world. International experience not only has the potential to be great life experience, but it also enhances your marketability come time to find a full-time job after graduation. A new resource on Idealist is their International Volunteerism Resource Center (IVRC) where they provide information to help you make informed decisions about volunteering abroad. And since the idea of an internship doesn’t always exist in the same way in other countries, volunteering abroad can be an ideal way to gain international work experience. You can also access Idealist in 11 different languages, so you can practice your Spanish language comprehension if you’d like. Maybe I’ll challenge myself to use the site in French from now on.

Idealist is not only a search resource, but it’s an interactive website where organizations and individuals can connect, exchange information and ideas, and learn more about community action. They [support info centers] for a variety of [topics], such as Graduate School and Nonprofit Careers. You can also [connect with Idealist through social media:]

 

Idealist is in the list of General Internship Search Resources on our Student Internships site.

Unpaid Internships: Criteria to Consider

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Last week, I touched upon your rights (of sorts) when it comes to unpaid internships. That post naturally started to drift into the criteria you might use to evaluate a “good” unpaid internship. So in keeping with that direction, here are some qualities of an acceptable unpaid internship.

No thumbs up

  • The internship involves real work. Most internship horror stories involve unpaid internships in which interns do nothing more than fetch coffee and make copies. Every “real” job involves some amount of grunt work, so you should expect some in an internship, too. However, it should never make up the bulk of your work tasks. If an unpaid internship consists almost entirely of menial work, I would pass.
  • Your work tasks are at an intern-appropriate level. While you should be doing real work as an intern, that work should be at a para-professional level. For example, you shouldn’t be the solo in-house PR person (i.e. professional level), but you should be working with a full-time PR professional in the organization. As an intern, you are still learning and should be working under the supervision of an experienced professional in the given area. While an internship that looks advanced might be appealing, you would be making a substantial contribution that goes well beyond the purview of an internship, especially one that’s not paid. Proceed at your own risk.
  • The internship posting provides a complete description of the position. When I’m coaching employers on creating an internship, I encourage them to think about what specifically they want an intern to do and to craft a thorough job description for the opportunity. While a good internship will allow for some flexibility for your goals and for new, unanticipated projects, much of the role should be in place well before you start work. If you find an internship posting that isn’t very clear about the work you will be doing, it could potentially lead you into an abusive internship situation.
  • You will have a specific supervisor. Sometimes you might not have this information at the time you apply. If you get to the point of interviewing, make sure to ask about the supervision you will receive as part of the internship. Who will your supervisor be? What is his/her background in the field? How will supervision be structured? How will feedback be delivered? An internship is a learning experience, so you want to know who your “teacher” will be.
  • The internship is with a non-profit organization. As I stated in last week’s post, non-profit organizations don’t fall under the same “rules” and guidelines when it comes to unpaid internships. It doesn’t mean that all unpaid internships with non-profits are legit – an unpaid internship with a non-profit should still entail real work that is clearly outlined from the outset, is appropriate for a student intern, and is supervised by an experienced professional. But if you see an unpaid internship with a lucrative for-profit organization, I would question it. While some unpaid internships with up-and-coming for-profits might not be a problem (ex. with a start-up company), a large organization that makes a huge profit should have no reason to bring on unpaid interns. Despite the issues with the lawsuit, I agree that a major  studio making millions of dollars off a movie can afford to pay their interns minimum wage. There is likely no good reason for a for-profit company to offer unpaid internships. I would tread cautiously…or maybe even run away very fast in the opposite direction.

My final piece of advice when it comes to evaluating an unpaid internship – Consult. Email me or schedule an appointment with me to discuss the internship you are considering.

Photo by Adventures of Pam & Frank

Unpaid Internships: What Are Your Rights?

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about the wave of legal action being taken against unpaid internships. While it is confined to one industry (the media industry – specifically a TV program, a magazine, and a movie studio) and there are some questionable issues with the lawsuits, it nonetheless brings up some legitimate concerns.

Justice sends mixed messages

Are Unpaid Internships Legal?

The simple answer to the whether or not unpaid internships are legal is yes, they are legal. This is because there are no laws against unpaid internships. Of course, the issue is more complicated than that.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes standards in the areas of minimum wage, overtime pay, and youth employment for full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local government. In regard to unpaid internships, the US Department of Labor defined criteria, from an FLSA perspective, for determining whether or not an employment situation exists with an internship in the private sector (i.e. with a for-profit business/organization). If it is not deemed to be employment but is a true training opportunity, then it can go without pay.

But these are only criteria, not laws.

The “Test” for Unpaid Internships

An unpaid internship with a for-profit employer must meet ALL of the following six criteria:

  1. The work of the internship must be similar to training you would receive in the classroom.
  2. The internship is for YOUR benefit (as in you, the intern).
  3. As an intern, you can’t displace regular employees.
  4. The employer cannot gain immediate advantage from your work as an intern.
  5. As an intern, you are not necessarily entitled to a job at the end of the internship.
  6. Both you, the intern, and the employer understand that you are not entitled to pay during the internship period.

If all of these criteria are met, then there is no employment relationship and the minimum wage/overtime provisions of the FLSA do not apply. In other words, you don’t have to be paid for your work.

Honestly, this “six-prong test” is a tricky one, and no one is really monitoring the situation. Therefore, it is up to you to use your best judgement and run your own six-prong test when considering an unpaid internship.

Students’ Internship Rights

So while you might not have any legal rights when it comes to unpaid internships, there are still ethical standards that protect you. From my perspective, here are the issues to be mindful of as you consider an unpaid internship.

  • Credit alone does not make an internship experience comparable to training in an educational environment. One of the common ways employers in the for-profit sector will skirt around the issue of pay is to require you to earn credit. They figure that doing so satisfies that first criterion (of course forgetting that they still have five others to meet). The thing is that you can earn credit for a bad internship just as you can for a good one. Even better are the companies that claim that they can offer you credit and that the credit is compensation. First, an employer can’t award you credit; only a university can. Second, you actually have to pay money to enroll in a credited internship course. Earning credit and earning actual money are not equal forms of compensation.
  • Most employers offer internships for their own benefit. Let’s be honest: Why would an organization spend valuable time vetting, hiring, training, and supervising student interns if they derived no benefit at all? While I do believe that employers hope their interns learn from the internship experience, it is not likely that this is their primary reason for offering the position. The internship is not solely for your benefit. And given the short-term nature of an internship, most employers are probably hoping to gain some immediate advantage from the work you are doing.
  • Be aware that the same “rules” do NOT apply to non-profits. It is ironic that one of the biggest perpetrators of unpaid internships is government, the same folks responsible for and covered under FLSA and who essentially created the related internship criteria. From my perspective, unpaid internships in the non-profit sector aren’t entirely wrong, but they can be abused more easily because of different rules.

As a student, it’s important to understand the criteria provided by the US Department of Labor. This knowledge isn’t so you can go out and take action against questionable unpaid internships, but it’s helpful as you evaluate your internship options.

Next week, I’ll write more about evaluating unpaid internships and determining whether or not an unpaid position is “acceptable.”

Photo by Dan4th Nicholas