Previously unaffordable internships will soon be within reach for some Tufts students with a new set of grants through the Career Services office.
A $3,500 stipend will be available to 25 undergraduates and two graduate students who have secured an unpaid non-profit or public sector internship for this coming summer.
The stipends "allow the people most interested and enthusiastic about taking internships in public service or in the public sector to do so," Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said.
"[Some] previously couldn't afford to because [these internships] are most likely to be unpaid," Reitman added.
Establishing the internship stipend program has been a longtime goal of the Tufts Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience, Reitman said.
The plan could be implemented sooner than anticipated due to the $100 million gift received in November 2006 from Pierre and Pam Omidyar.
The structure of the process does include some element of risk, however, as students must first apply for, and secure, an unpaid internship without a guarantee of funding from Tufts.
TCU Senator and senior Rafi Goldberg acknowledged that the risks inherent in the program's requirements are not ideal, but said that they are necessary.
"Students need to have secured an offer for an internship before applying for a grant," Goldberg said. "It's the only realistic way to run this program because [we can't] award a stipend to someone who may not actually have an internship."
Jean Papalia, Director of Career Services, hopes this uncertainty will not deter students from applying for or accepting non-paid summer internships. She sees the opportunity as a "bonus rather than as a negative."
"The idea of [providing this] funding is that you've accepted an unpaid summer internship and we can help you fund it," she said.
The administration is pleased that progress on the internship financing is taking place more quickly than expected.
"[This is] a wonderful opportunity...and a wonderful research and internship tool," Reitman said. "We are happy to be able to afford it."
Goldberg, who made the summer internship stipend program a personal priority in his campaign for Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate last spring, said he is "thrilled" to see it implemented.
"I was completely amazed when I learned that an internship stipend fund for nonprofit and government positions was to be one of the first programs to benefit from the Omidyar gift," Goldberg said in a statement to the Senate.
Reitman expects the stipend program to continue to exist in future years. He hopes the program will expand.
Goldberg expects that the TCU Senate will be dedicated to this goal.
We "just made this investment a few months ago, and half of returns are reinvested," Goldberg said. "Over time, it would follow that we will have more money to dedicate to this cause."
Meetings at Career Services concerning the internship financing process will take place in Dowling 745 today at 5 p.m. and tomorrow, Jan. 8, at 2 p.m.
