\u201cI was able to work directly with physicians and learn about each role on a health care team, through conversations and shadowing,\u201d the brain and cognitive sciences major from Albany, New York, says.<\/p>\n
Finding the best internship for you<\/strong><\/h3>\nUniversity of Rochester undergraduates interested in finding an internship<\/a> can speak with an advisor in the Greene Career Center. They will help you explore and clarify your interests and skills, and can answer your questions about internships and other career-related opportunities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nGaneles was one of 92 Rochester undergraduates who pursued summer internships in 2022 that were funded by the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections<\/a>. The center distributed around $240,000 for the last fiscal year, through donations from alumni and friends of the University. Since many coveted internships come with limited or no compensation and are located in some of the most expensive regions of the nation, the funding is critical to ensuring all qualified students can meet their travel, food, lodging, and living expenses.<\/p>\n\u201cThe funding helped me afford housing in Chicago,\u201d says Ganeles, who worked with a team specializing in bariatric surgery, collecting data on the state of patients\u2019 health before, during, and after surgery. \u201cI was able to buy food and take public transportation throughout the city. And I was able to spend more time on my days off shadowing doctors and exploring my professional interests in health care as opposed to working a second job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jodyi Wren, interim executive director for the Greene Center, says internship funding provides the \u201cfinancial bridge\u201d that makes experiences like Ganeles\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout this funding from our generous donors, students would miss out on these pivotal experiences that not only build skills employers and graduate school are looking for, but also strengthen their social capital,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n![\"student](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/brian-ganeles.jpg\")
Brian Ganeles \u201923 spent his summer at an internship working with a bariatric surgery in Chicago thanks to funding from the University\u2019s Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections. (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhy internships are important<\/strong><\/h3>\nAccording to Wren, \u201cInternships provide incredible value to a student\u2019s academic journey. They help students explore their academic interests in real world environments, gauge their desire to pursue a career in the field, build networking connections, develop and refine skills, and help launch them to whatever’s next after Rochester.\u201d<\/p>\n
An internship is a job offered to a student or trainee, sometimes without pay, for a limited time. It gives the person a chance to gain real-life experience in a field of interest\u2014and in many cases, turn that internship into a full-time job.<\/p>\n
Part-time internships are available year-round, giving a college student the chance to pursue an interest while also taking classes. Full-time internships are more common in the summer and more likely to offer pay for services (though not always). Internships allow a student to gain insight into a field of interest, create a professional network, and build a strong resume.<\/p>\n
NACE<\/a>, the National Association of College Employers, recently released the results of its 2022 student survey<\/a> of more than 16,000 undergraduates from four-year colleges. Joshua Kahn is the associate director of research at NACE, a nonprofit professional organization, or college career services, recruiting practitioners, and others who wish to hire those with college degrees. He says 61 percent of college seniors in 2022 had taken an internship, and of those, half were paid. Paid interns were offered on average of 1.6 full-time job offers compared to 0.95 for unpaid interns and .77 for students who did not take internships. (After a lull in job offers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NACE reported a 31 percent hiring increase for college graduates from the Class of 2022.)<\/p>\nKahn says college internships are a \u201cmassively important\u201d step toward landing a dream job.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and most obvious is skill development and an introduction to the workplace,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents report they\u2019re able to learn things they\u2019re not able to learn in a classroom. And it\u2019s also a chance for them to determine if this is really the career they want to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahn says it\u2019s \u201cvery impressive\u201d that Rochester funded 92 internships this past summer. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, really,\u201d he says. \u201cMore than 35 percent of universities have funding in place for low or underpaid internships. We want more colleges to do that, and for funding to come from colleges and universities, and not just alumni and donors. Many students simply can\u2019t afford to take an unpaid internship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rochester students thrive as interns<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe Rochester undergraduates who received funding from the Greene Center for summer internships spanned a diversity of fields.<\/p>\n
Grace Stensland \u201923<\/strong>, for example, interned in Burbank, California, at Sound Rebels, an audio post-production company, under Emmy Award\u2013winning supervising sound editor Rob McIntyre. A film and media studies major from Syracuse, New York, Stensland\u2019s duties included sound editorial and design for animated television episodes airing on Netflix and Nickelodeon\u2014including her favorite animated show, Netflix\u2019s Inside Job<\/em>. \u201cIn a few months\u2019 time, Inside Job <\/em>went from a show I enjoyed to one with a world I helped bring to life,\u201d she says. \u201cThe day season two drops will be one of the most gratifying of my young career and the best binge-watch of all time.\u201d<\/p>\nStensland has worked at the Greene Center for two years and says, \u201cessentially everything I’ve been learning has come into play\u2014networking, professional communication, portfolio development, interviewing, and more.\u201d Her internship was funded by a Class of 1981 endowment which provides financial support for undergraduates who secure unpaid or low-paying internships. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to do this otherwise,\u201d she says. \u201cLos Angeles is infamous for its astronomical cost of living,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"composite](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/summer-internships-2022.jpg\")
For Rochester undergraduates Sophie Sweet \u201924, Daniel Semphere \u201923, Grace Stensland \u201923<\/strong>, and Panzhen Wu \u201922, \u201923 (T5),<\/strong> \u00a0internships brought opportunities in recycling and environmental stewardship, video marketing, sound design, and film production. (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA few miles south in Los Angeles, Panzhen Wu \u201922, \u201923 (T5)<\/strong> secured an internship at the Arlook Group, a creative management company specializing in talent management, TV and film production, and brand consulting. Her main duty was reviewing scripts the company receives. \u201cThe interns were given a lot of flexibility and trust to evaluate a script based on our own preferences and opinions,\u201d says Wu, a Shenzhen, China, native who majored in music and mathematics as an undergraduate. \u201cI felt empowered and gained a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\nBecause her internship was unpaid, funding from the Greene Center proved critical. It covered housing for six weeks, a round-trip ticket from Rochester to Los Angeles, and money for meals. \u201cBecause of it, I was financially able to explore other opportunities in Los Angeles,\u201d she says. \u201cI worked three days as a crew member on the set of a film, which gave me a more complete understanding of film as both an artwork and a business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>My advice to undergraduates is to try it. Nothing beats the real thing, actually doing what you\u2019re being trained to do in school.\u201d<\/div>\nCalifornia wasn\u2019t the only far-flung state to host Rochester students for internships. Sophie Sweet \u201924<\/strong>, a chemical engineering major from Westbrook, Maine, interned in Shepherd, Montana at Floating Island International. The organization makes floating islands created from recycled materials. Sweet\u2019s jobs ranged from property stewardship and writing grant proposals, to research on new nanobubble technology and harvesting minnows into Fish Fry Lake, once an algae-filled pond but now a vibrant, clean body of water filled with a variety of fish.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a small business, so I got to do a lot while I was there,\u201d Sweet says. \u201cMy internship forced me to be resourceful and adaptive because I had to work with what was on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other students found internships that let them stay in Rochester and work remotely.<\/p>\n
Daniel Semphere \u201923 <\/strong>is a film and media studies major from Lilongwe, Malawi, in Africa. Since May 2022, he has worked remotely as an intern for Syron Design, a Vermont-based corporate branding and marketing firm, helping to create video content.<\/p>\nSemphere has maintained this job into the school year and says, \u201cI have frequently taken advantage of the Career Center counselors for their advice.\u201d His remote internship is part of a growing trend that has accelerated since COVID-19 spread worldwide in 2020. According to the NACE survey, nearly half of graduating seniors expressed a preference to work in a hybrid setting\u2014a mix of in-person with remote work.<\/p>\n![\"Grace](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/inline-student-internships-summer.jpg\")
Rob McIntyre (right), an Emmy Award\u2013winning supervising sound editor and sound designer, reunited with Grace Stensland \u201923 in the control room of the recording studio in Gavett Hall during a recent campus visit. Stensland interned with McIntyre at Sound Rebels, an audio post production company in Burbank, California. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAre internships worth it?<\/strong><\/h3>\nMany Rochester students report the benefits of internship experiences on their college education and personal growth. Some have even turned their internships into full-time positions after graduation.<\/p>\n
Casey Ryu \u201922<\/strong> interned for Zoom in the summer of 2021 and then accepted a job on the company\u2019s social impact operations team. Melissa Bucklin \u201920<\/strong> interned at Rochester\u2019s Medical Center as an emergency department research associate and then was hired full time. She has since started graduate school to become a physician\u2019s assistant. \u201cGetting involved with health-related opportunities at Strong Memorial Hospital was one of the most valuable parts of being an undergrad at Rochester,\u201d Bucklin says. \u201cI learned so much at the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\nShoham Shitrit \u201922<\/strong> interned at Microsoft in Seattle the summer before his senior year and then accepted a full-time position on the content management system team after graduating. The team stores articles, documents, images, and videos for numerous websites, including msn.com, xbox.com, and fedex.com.<\/p>\n\u201cMy internship was extremely valuable to me, both from skills gained and learning what it\u2019s really like to be a software engineer\u2014the good, the bad, and the ugly,\u201d says Shitrit, a Boston native who majored in computer science at Rochester. \u201cI learned what it takes to write code that affects millions as well as communicating with teammates about issues and achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students may encounter some surprises as they go about applying for internships. Shitrit says he was turned down for every internship he applied for except the one at the tech giant. Now, he\u2019s building a career there.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to undergraduates is to try it,\u201d he says. \u201cBeing a student gives you a unique chance to try different things in order to form long-term career decisions. Nothing beats the real thing, actually doing what you\u2019re being trained to do in school. The process can be arduous, but be persistent. No matter how many companies say \u2018no\u2019, remember you only need one company to say \u2018yes.\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With University and donor funding providing a \u201cfinancial bridge,\u201d equitable access to internships helps Rochester students preview their futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":540422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34502,18632,16072],"class_list":["post-539162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-gwen-m-greene-center-for-career-education-and-connections","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Funded internships open doors to graduate schools, career paths, and personal growth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Equitable access to internships helps University of Rochester undergraduate students preview their futures.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Funded internships open doors to graduate schools, career paths, and personal growth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Equitable access to internships helps University of Rochester undergraduate students preview their futures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-08T19:18:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-27T14:21:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/fea-internships-for-students.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim Mandelaro\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124\"},\"headline\":\"Funded internships open doors to graduate schools, career paths, and personal growth\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-08T19:18:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-27T14:21:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1869,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/funded-paid-internships-for-students-539162\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/fea-internships-for-students.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gwen M. 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Ganeles was one of 92 Rochester undergraduates who pursued summer internships in 2022 that were funded by the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections<\/a>. The center distributed around $240,000 for the last fiscal year, through donations from alumni and friends of the University. Since many coveted internships come with limited or no compensation and are located in some of the most expensive regions of the nation, the funding is critical to ensuring all qualified students can meet their travel, food, lodging, and living expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funding helped me afford housing in Chicago,\u201d says Ganeles, who worked with a team specializing in bariatric surgery, collecting data on the state of patients\u2019 health before, during, and after surgery. \u201cI was able to buy food and take public transportation throughout the city. And I was able to spend more time on my days off shadowing doctors and exploring my professional interests in health care as opposed to working a second job.\u201d<\/p>\n Jodyi Wren, interim executive director for the Greene Center, says internship funding provides the \u201cfinancial bridge\u201d that makes experiences like Ganeles\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout this funding from our generous donors, students would miss out on these pivotal experiences that not only build skills employers and graduate school are looking for, but also strengthen their social capital,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n According to Wren, \u201cInternships provide incredible value to a student\u2019s academic journey. They help students explore their academic interests in real world environments, gauge their desire to pursue a career in the field, build networking connections, develop and refine skills, and help launch them to whatever’s next after Rochester.\u201d<\/p>\n An internship is a job offered to a student or trainee, sometimes without pay, for a limited time. It gives the person a chance to gain real-life experience in a field of interest\u2014and in many cases, turn that internship into a full-time job.<\/p>\n Part-time internships are available year-round, giving a college student the chance to pursue an interest while also taking classes. Full-time internships are more common in the summer and more likely to offer pay for services (though not always). Internships allow a student to gain insight into a field of interest, create a professional network, and build a strong resume.<\/p>\n NACE<\/a>, the National Association of College Employers, recently released the results of its 2022 student survey<\/a> of more than 16,000 undergraduates from four-year colleges. Joshua Kahn is the associate director of research at NACE, a nonprofit professional organization, or college career services, recruiting practitioners, and others who wish to hire those with college degrees. He says 61 percent of college seniors in 2022 had taken an internship, and of those, half were paid. Paid interns were offered on average of 1.6 full-time job offers compared to 0.95 for unpaid interns and .77 for students who did not take internships. (After a lull in job offers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NACE reported a 31 percent hiring increase for college graduates from the Class of 2022.)<\/p>\n Kahn says college internships are a \u201cmassively important\u201d step toward landing a dream job.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst and most obvious is skill development and an introduction to the workplace,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents report they\u2019re able to learn things they\u2019re not able to learn in a classroom. And it\u2019s also a chance for them to determine if this is really the career they want to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n Kahn says it\u2019s \u201cvery impressive\u201d that Rochester funded 92 internships this past summer. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, really,\u201d he says. \u201cMore than 35 percent of universities have funding in place for low or underpaid internships. We want more colleges to do that, and for funding to come from colleges and universities, and not just alumni and donors. Many students simply can\u2019t afford to take an unpaid internship.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rochester undergraduates who received funding from the Greene Center for summer internships spanned a diversity of fields.<\/p>\n Grace Stensland \u201923<\/strong>, for example, interned in Burbank, California, at Sound Rebels, an audio post-production company, under Emmy Award\u2013winning supervising sound editor Rob McIntyre. A film and media studies major from Syracuse, New York, Stensland\u2019s duties included sound editorial and design for animated television episodes airing on Netflix and Nickelodeon\u2014including her favorite animated show, Netflix\u2019s Inside Job<\/em>. \u201cIn a few months\u2019 time, Inside Job <\/em>went from a show I enjoyed to one with a world I helped bring to life,\u201d she says. \u201cThe day season two drops will be one of the most gratifying of my young career and the best binge-watch of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n Stensland has worked at the Greene Center for two years and says, \u201cessentially everything I’ve been learning has come into play\u2014networking, professional communication, portfolio development, interviewing, and more.\u201d Her internship was funded by a Class of 1981 endowment which provides financial support for undergraduates who secure unpaid or low-paying internships. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to do this otherwise,\u201d she says. \u201cLos Angeles is infamous for its astronomical cost of living,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m very fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n A few miles south in Los Angeles, Panzhen Wu \u201922, \u201923 (T5)<\/strong> secured an internship at the Arlook Group, a creative management company specializing in talent management, TV and film production, and brand consulting. Her main duty was reviewing scripts the company receives. \u201cThe interns were given a lot of flexibility and trust to evaluate a script based on our own preferences and opinions,\u201d says Wu, a Shenzhen, China, native who majored in music and mathematics as an undergraduate. \u201cI felt empowered and gained a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Because her internship was unpaid, funding from the Greene Center proved critical. It covered housing for six weeks, a round-trip ticket from Rochester to Los Angeles, and money for meals. \u201cBecause of it, I was financially able to explore other opportunities in Los Angeles,\u201d she says. \u201cI worked three days as a crew member on the set of a film, which gave me a more complete understanding of film as both an artwork and a business.\u201d<\/p>\n California wasn\u2019t the only far-flung state to host Rochester students for internships. Sophie Sweet \u201924<\/strong>, a chemical engineering major from Westbrook, Maine, interned in Shepherd, Montana at Floating Island International. The organization makes floating islands created from recycled materials. Sweet\u2019s jobs ranged from property stewardship and writing grant proposals, to research on new nanobubble technology and harvesting minnows into Fish Fry Lake, once an algae-filled pond but now a vibrant, clean body of water filled with a variety of fish.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a small business, so I got to do a lot while I was there,\u201d Sweet says. \u201cMy internship forced me to be resourceful and adaptive because I had to work with what was on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n Other students found internships that let them stay in Rochester and work remotely.<\/p>\n Daniel Semphere \u201923 <\/strong>is a film and media studies major from Lilongwe, Malawi, in Africa. Since May 2022, he has worked remotely as an intern for Syron Design, a Vermont-based corporate branding and marketing firm, helping to create video content.<\/p>\n Semphere has maintained this job into the school year and says, \u201cI have frequently taken advantage of the Career Center counselors for their advice.\u201d His remote internship is part of a growing trend that has accelerated since COVID-19 spread worldwide in 2020. According to the NACE survey, nearly half of graduating seniors expressed a preference to work in a hybrid setting\u2014a mix of in-person with remote work.<\/p>\n Many Rochester students report the benefits of internship experiences on their college education and personal growth. Some have even turned their internships into full-time positions after graduation.<\/p>\n Casey Ryu \u201922<\/strong> interned for Zoom in the summer of 2021 and then accepted a job on the company\u2019s social impact operations team. Melissa Bucklin \u201920<\/strong> interned at Rochester\u2019s Medical Center as an emergency department research associate and then was hired full time. She has since started graduate school to become a physician\u2019s assistant. \u201cGetting involved with health-related opportunities at Strong Memorial Hospital was one of the most valuable parts of being an undergrad at Rochester,\u201d Bucklin says. \u201cI learned so much at the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n Shoham Shitrit \u201922<\/strong> interned at Microsoft in Seattle the summer before his senior year and then accepted a full-time position on the content management system team after graduating. The team stores articles, documents, images, and videos for numerous websites, including msn.com, xbox.com, and fedex.com.<\/p>\n \u201cMy internship was extremely valuable to me, both from skills gained and learning what it\u2019s really like to be a software engineer\u2014the good, the bad, and the ugly,\u201d says Shitrit, a Boston native who majored in computer science at Rochester. \u201cI learned what it takes to write code that affects millions as well as communicating with teammates about issues and achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n Students may encounter some surprises as they go about applying for internships. Shitrit says he was turned down for every internship he applied for except the one at the tech giant. Now, he\u2019s building a career there.<\/p>\n \u201cMy advice to undergraduates is to try it,\u201d he says. \u201cBeing a student gives you a unique chance to try different things in order to form long-term career decisions. Nothing beats the real thing, actually doing what you\u2019re being trained to do in school. The process can be arduous, but be persistent. No matter how many companies say \u2018no\u2019, remember you only need one company to say \u2018yes.\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With University and donor funding providing a \u201cfinancial bridge,\u201d equitable access to internships helps Rochester students preview their futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":540422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34502,18632,16072],"class_list":["post-539162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-gwen-m-greene-center-for-career-education-and-connections","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy internships are important<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Rochester students thrive as interns<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Are internships worth it?<\/strong><\/h3>\n