A number of students sacrifice the possibility of earnings during the summer months for opportunities they find to be rewarding in other ways. Jumbos who spent their summer vacations in unpaid internships were forced to either take on part-time work if they needed "dough," or make do with only learning experience as payment for their labor.
Senior Philip Gordon speaks highly of his internship this summer in the city hall of his hometown, West Haven, Connecticut, where he worked in the office of the tax collector. "It was an experience, and I would recommend an internship to anyone," Gordon said. "It looks so nice to have that on my resum?© now."
Assistant Director of Career Services and Internship Coordinator Marie McCool agrees that an internship can give students a leg-up when it comes time to apply for a job. "Internships allow graduating students to be more competitive in the job market," McCool said. "Potential employers see that students have both a vested interest in their field and have tangible work-place skills to offer."
The only downside to summer work like that of Gordon's? A lack of compensation. To make up for his unpaid help at city hall, Gordon occasionally put in hours on weekends at a part-time job. "[The internship] was unpaid, so that made it rough," Gordon said.
However, Gordon believes the experience was worth the sacrifice. "Obviously, paid work is ideal, but if you have to take what they give, I'd still do something worthwhile with my summer at the internship," said Gordon, who gained a lot from observing first-hand the responsibilities of a tax collector. "I met some really nice people and got a taste of local government," Gordon said.
Meeting and networking with professionals while on the job is another benefit of participating in an internship program. "Many employers also use their internship programs as a way to screen candidates for permanent positions," McCool said.
Not everyone can afford the loss of wages, however, no matter how valuable the experience. It is for this reason that a recent article in the New York Times<$> examined whether such unpaid opportunities are widening an already difficult-to-overcome class division.
According to the Times<$>, ABC News Correspondent Cokie Roberts expressed her frustrations with unpaid opportunities during a speech to Congressional interns this summer. "By setting up unpaid internship programs, it seems to me that without completely recognizing it, it sets up a system where you are making it ever more difficult for people who don't have economic advantages to catch up," Roberts said.
McCool admitted that "the New York Times <$>article highlighted a growing concern that some students are unable to do internships since many are unpaid."
McCool pointed out, however, that aid does exist to prevent students from missing out. "Many students have found ways to work around this, either by holding part time jobs in addition to their internships, doing internships during the academic year, or enrolling in academic internship programs," McCool said.
In addition, funding and grants exist to alleviate the burden of working unpaid, such as the Active Citizenship Summer Program offered through UCCPS, the Diversity Opportunity Summer Internship Grant offered through Career Services, summer research grants offered through the Provost's office, and the Diversity Opportunity Summer Internship Grant, a program in its fourth year which has already provided funding for six students for Summer 2005.
In addition, paid internships, though sometime difficult to find, are not completely elusive. Senior James Groth was one of the lucky students that gained both a packed resum?© and wallet this summer -- his internship with Morgan Stanley provided pay as well as experience.
For Groth, the internship demonstrated how professionals "constructively interact with different backgrounds in a single job place -- the real world, not the Tufts world." Groth reiterated Gordon's sentiments when he said"an internship is never a bad thing to have on a resume."
Despite the knowledge and compensation gained, Groth still had to make sacrifices for the internship. Due to the time commitment, "I wasn't able to travel as much as I usually do, and I didn't have the time to mess around like most summers -- but that's expected," Groth said.Career Services Marie McCool encourages students to find ways of balancing unpaid internships with paying jobs, or to seek out funding and grants.
