For seven William and Mary students, the answer to the question “What Did You Do Last Summer?” is that they served an internship with local community organizations. This article talks about the City Research Scholar internship, open to undergraduates at the college, which gives students $4,000 to complete 10 full-time weeks of research activities during the summer. This year, two students worked on the strategic goals for the City of Williamsburg, while the other five students served internships for Williamsburg House of Mercy, Literacy for Life, The Williamsburg Farmer’s Market, Latisha’s House, and Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.
For a little more background, here’s what these organizations do:
Williamsburg House of Mercy, run by St. Bede’s Catholic Church, provides assistance on an ecumenical basis for people who have housing, food, job training, or other needs associated with poverty.
Literacy for Life provides ESL classes and a variety of programs designed to help people who, for whatever reason, lack the literacy skills necessary to navigate their lives.
The Williamsburg Farmers Market is just what it sounds like – although every Saturday morning, the market features stalls that also convey information about local community events and opportunities.
Latisha’s House operates as a halfway house for women who have been sexually trafficked and who need a place to live, get essential medical care (including counseling), and job training to get back into the workforce.
Virginia Peninsula Foodbank provides necessary food resources to people in the area who live in local “food deserts” or who are not otherwise able to buy enough food to feed their families.
I attended a workshop early in the summer that was put on by the college Office of Community Engagement, which works closely with college faculty to identify and then fund internship opportunities like this. In the course of that workshop, I met several people whose causes I recognize from this article – people who were motivated by the college to provide these opportunities for service to students.
I love the idea of local government working with the academic departs at the College to provide students real-life experiences that will help both the students and the City accomplish their goals. The internships pay $4,000 for the 10 weeks of commitment – not enough to get rich on or even to pay the expenses of their summer break, but enough to put them within reach of students with even modest financial resources. The article doesn’t make the point, but my understanding of the college program is that students can also receive academic credit for the work they do as interns.
A win-win-win — for the College, for the City, and for the students.
Well, I imagine the students went into the program knowing about the money piece and still decided it was worth the effort.
I love this idea and am glad to see students having these sorts of opportunities. One question, tho. As you point out, $400 a week is not nearly enough money to support someone, unless they are sharing living space with at least three others. But more importantly, if they are working 40 hours per week, it's not even the required minimum wage in Virginia, which is now $12. I hope they will find additional funding for the future. (Guess the question was: how many hours?)! My freshman English prof would be disappointed in me.