Job and Internship Fair in the Williams Center.
Students who undertake a credit-bearing, unpaid internship during the spring semester are invited to apply for an Internship and Living Stipend.
To be eligible for the stipend, a student needs to be in good academic standing, have completed at least 30 credit hours of course work, with a minimum 2.0 GPA, and have already secured an unpaid internship when applying for the stipend.
The deadline to submit a stipend application and the learning contract for experiential education that’s a component of the campus-wide internship program, centrally coordinated by the Career Development Office (CDO), is Friday, Feb. 16.
There’s no time like the present to take advantage of funding that supports your academic and career goals.” - Jennifer Wilkins
An internship integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional workplace setting. The internship is to be related to the student’s future career goals while enrolled at SUNY Fredonia. Funding can support transportation, parking, childcare, housing, food or other incidental costs and expenses.
Stipends are designed to support students who experience financial need or hardship and/or significant barriers to completing an unpaid internship.
“Designating $155,600 of the (SUNY) funds to support internship opportunities, just over 100 SUNY Fredonia students will benefit from the living stipend, in addition to supporting the anticipated hire of a graduate student assistant to directly support the continuation of offerings,” said Internship Coordinator Jennifer Wilkins.
Over 40 percent of Fredonia’s student body come from financially constrained backgrounds that include many first-generation students, Ms. Wilkins noted. During the 2022-2023 academic year, 103 students participated in a paid internship. The SUNY approved 2023-2024 campus plan to support internship opportunities through the Internship and Living Stipend is expected to double the number of students who receive some form of financial support for their internship experience.
The SUNY funding allocation for Internship and Living Stipends is expected to be available on an annual basis, however, the individual designations and the maximum number of awards per semester, based on the overall budget, may vary. Wilkins is excited to expand funding available next year for students completing unpaid applied learning activities that are not coordinated by the CDO, such as, but not limited to, student teaching, music therapy, social work and other public service and high demand non-profit sectors.
The National Association of College and Employers recognizes the value of internship or applied learning opportunities as a means for students to be more prepared to enter the workforce. In fact, students from the classes of 2022 and 2023 who completed an internship indicated, based on a six-month post-graduation survey, that they earned an average $3,500 more in their first post-college jobs than those graduates who did not complete an internship.
“There’s no time like the present to take advantage of funding that supports your academic and career goals,” Wilkins said.
More information is available from Wilkins at the Career Development Office on the second floor of Gregory Hall, or through its website.
The learning contract for experiential education can be accessed here.
Students can apply for the Internship and Living Stipend here.
