But not so fast. Lucky for us almost-broke college kids, Career Services offers ways to snatch up fantastic unpaid internships without worrying about the cost. Internship Grants cover funding for 39 internships in non-paid job sectors, from up-and-coming nonprofits to the pioneering grounds of research labs. This year’s grants encompass 25 non-profit and public sector internships, 10 diversity fund internships, and 4 start-up entrepreneurial opportunities. Eligible students are required to work a minimum of 350 hours (35 hours a week for 10 weeks).
Applying for one of these save-the-day grants? Not so bad. Application materials encompass an up-to-date resume, unofficial transcript, two teacher recommendations, and a set of short essays detailing motivations and goals. Completed materials must be submitted to the office by 5 p.m. April 1st--plenty of time to get your act together!
Take Josh Friedmann—a senior majoring in Political Science and Environmental Studies. After a semester abroad dabbling in Washington DC politics, Josh wasn’t ready to part with the climatic city just yet. So, thanks to a handy internship grant, he returned to our nation’s political hub last summer, where he lent his know-how to an internship at Governor Christine Gregoire’s office.
Read on for Josh's experiences within DC’s heated political scene.1. What motivated you to apply for a Career Services internship grant? How did the internship grant facilitate your experience?
After participating in a Washington semester program with Tufts, I knew I really wanted to go back and spend more time interning in Washington DC. I wouldn’t have been able to afford paying rent for the summer---DC is a very expensive city to live in. The grant helped me pay for rent and food for the summer, so I was able to not only be in D.C., but also devote my full attention to interning without having to take on a part-time job.
2. What was the application process like?
You have to write a detailed proposal of what you want to do and paint a coherent picture of this. I wrote about what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, and how it fit in with my long-term career plans. I emphasized it was full-time, unpaid, and that I wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. I took it seriously and put time in to it. It was all totally worth it for me.
3. What inspired you to pursue an internship at the governor’s office?
I spent the summer interning for my governor’s federal liaison in Washington DC. I met him during an earlier D.C. experience interning at the US House [of Representatives] Energy and Commerce committee. [Interning with the Committee] was a great experience, but after that I wanted to spend some time in a smaller office, where I could do research and be involved in meetings that touched on the political process, rather than solely provide administrative services. This past summer, I worked right alongside him. It was closer to the action than I ever could have been anywhere else.
4. What were your main responsibilities as an intern?
My main long-term project was to create a database of when different federal programs would expire and need to be reauthorized. If [the governor’s liaison] had a database to refer to, he could look ahead two, three, four years about what’s coming up and could plan his legislative agenda. I also researched and wrote background memos for him about possible opportunities for our state in re-authorization bills. I took some of what I learned from political science, but I also had to do my homework in terms of figuring out what [legislative language in bills] meant. At first, it took me three days to write one memo, but by the end of the summer I was writing three in one day.
5. What was it like working with real-scale politicians? What were your daily interactions like?
I worked in very close proximity with the governor’s liaison, and we got to know each other quite well. I needed to spend the first few weeks proving myself, but the more I was there and the more I was able to prove competent, the more responsibility he gave me. By end of summer, he was bringing me to barbecues with White House staff.
In my experience, all the people I worked with genuinely care about issues they work on. What lobbyists try to do on a day-to-day basis is build coalitions with other groups that care about the same issues. That made it a lot of fun.
6. What kinds of political issues did you encounter on-the-job?
Governors deal with all kinds of issues--so I worked on basically everything. I worked on issues ranging from Medicare and child hunger to highway development and the environment. Some days, there were issues that had me really jumping out of bed, but other days I had to spend time on issues that I’d never given a second thought before. Environmental issues especially stuck out for me, especially policies surrounding government administration of public lands. For every issue that’s out there, though, there is a reason to care about it and there are a lot of people that do.
7. What did you take away from your experiences?
I developed research skills and writing skills. Mostly though, I learned how the process works and what staffers do to get things done for their organizations. I met awesome people who were interesting and very passionate about what they are doing. They are people I am looking forward to working with again.
8. Did your experience as an intern lend insight into what you can see yourself doing professionally?
My experience definitely confirmed that this is the field that I’m interested in starting out in. It gave me a great background in how the process works and prepared me to look for a job over there. Five years out, I’d ideally like to be working on a legislative committee staff for Congress. I’d love to take on environmental and public land issues down the line.
9.Can you recall a specific moment from your internship that most sticks out to you?
When [Governor Gregoire] came to Washington DC to do a press conference, I got to ride around in the back of the suburban with her. Because [the governor’s liaison] was staffing her all the time, I not only helped him with that, but I also took over some of his major tasks for the day. I got to take a state administrator around Capitol Hill to meet a bunch of staffers. Afterward, when all the staffers had specific questions, the governor asked me who asked what and what I thought they were getting at. What really stuck out for me though is that they were cracking jokes the whole time. The governor is the nicest person, and the state troopers riding in the front are really funny guys. We were riding to this press conference, and whole way there we are having a great time and laughing and talking about the news. I think what most people don’t realize about politicians is that they are really good at just chilling; they’re friendly people that everyone likes. It’s sometimes too bad to see someone get up there and stand at a podium. When someone’s doing the “official” side of politicking, you can miss the depth of who they are and how much they care about these things.
