According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, “an internship is a legitimate learning experience benefiting the student and not simply an operational work experience that just happens to be conducted by a student.”
This is the standard to which Whitman adheres to when supporting student internships and considering which ones to fund through the Whitman Internship Grant. The thought of applying for an internship may make many people hesitant, considering that they are often unpaid and require that you complete a significant amount of questionable work. However, Whitman tries to compensate for this not only by providing funding for students who participate in internships, but also by assisting them in researching which internships will be valuable for them.
“Just because something is called an internship doesn’t mean it’s going to be a high-value, meaningful opportunity that allows the person who does it to have a really powerful experience” said Assistant Dean for Student Engagement Noah Leavitt. “The internship experiences where people wind up doing a lot of busy work . . . those are often situations where the person hasn’t done that background research and hasn’t had the chance to interview a potential supervisor or go to the organization and check it out to see what they do.”
While Whitman tries to make sure that its students are placed in internships with potential for growth and learning, this cannot always be the case for every student. In situations where students find themselves unsatisfied with their internships or as though their free or underpaid labor is being taken advantage of, Leavitt recommends that students take action and try to turn the experience around.
“Always go back to the position description for the internship, and look at that, and see the areas where the student is not being used or those particular responsibilities are not being asked to be done, and then going to the supervisor and saying, ‘Look, this is what I signed on for and I’d really love to have the opportunity to do these things that looked like they were going to be a part of my summer,'” said Leavitt.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, most types of internships are illegal. Time Magazine explains that in order for an internship to be legal, it must be an actual learning experience for the student and not simply a way for the company to get a job done for free. Unfortunately, internships where students are asked to do basic administrative tasks are still extremely common. This is because the U.S. Department of Labor has said that “it’s not at the top of [its] priority list” and that it is incapable of fighting the problem.
Hence, Whitman encourages students to consult with the Student Engagement Center about their internship plans as a way to help them feel confident that their work will be significant and meaningful to them. The Student Engagement Center recommends that, if a student would like to be an intern for the summer of 2012, they should begin researching their ideas over winter break and complete their application for the Whitman Internship Grant over spring break.
