After graduating from college and trying to get a job, many recent students face what Debra Lam calls the “chicken and egg” problem.
“It is very difficult to get your first job if you have no work experience. You can’t get work experience if you don’t have a first job,” says Lam, founding executive director of the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN). “So that starts a terrible cycle, and we want to break that vicious cycle and provide opportunities for students to learn about what they like, what they don't like, and where they want to spend their time and develop their experience and talents. .”
Lam believes that one of the best ways to disrupt this paradigm and for students to gain valuable information early in their career is through internships. However, not all students have the opportunity to participate. According to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, only 62% of seniors who will graduate from college in 2023 participated in an internship. Female students, students of color, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant recipients were less likely to have obtained internships while in college.
Lam runs a successful internship program through PIN, which is based in Georgia. She shares her insights on why equitable internships are vital and how educators can help support these programs.
Increasing Equity in Internships: Supporting Paid Internships
Many internships are unpaid and this affects the types of students who can participate in them.
“If you can do an unpaid internship, great, it means you have the financial capacity to do it,” Lam says. “But not everyone can afford an unpaid internship.”
This situation creates inequity, as there are income differences between those who take unpaid internships and those who cannot afford it, says Lam. That's why it's important for educators to try to steer their students toward paid opportunities and for educational leaders to work with organizations and companies that offer financial compensation for students' work.
“All of our internships and fellowships are paid because we value the work students do,” Lam says.
democratizing the application process
Educators should support a fair and equitable application process for internships in their communities.
“The way you used to get internships, the way you used to get most jobs, was that if you met someone who then talked to someone else, you got an interview,” Lam says.
To make internships less about social connections and more about merit, the application process for the internship program that Lam oversees is transparent and accessible. “Students have to submit a resume and an application, and they have to do an interview,” Lam says. This helps ensure that students selected for internships perform quality work for the organizations they are matched with.
On the other hand, organizations should also apply to host a PIN internship, which helps ensure a win-win experience. “We want to make sure there is meaningful work and that students really help,” she says. “You're not just babysitting students. “They are young professionals and they are doing really important work in the community that could benefit people.”
More internships and a cohort model are needed
Last summer, more than 100 students applied for PINs for 60 internships. PIN uses a cohort model, which helps students track their learning throughout the 12-week internships and also allows them to begin networking with each other, an important part of the job application process after University.
“I have many more students who want to do this work. The thing is, I don't have enough places to put them or funds,” says Lam. That's why she believes educational leaders and other stakeholders should work with organizations like hers or others in their communities to help ensure that all students have the opportunity to explore different career options.
“The work is out there, the students want to do it,” he says. “We identify, promote, hire, advise and manage them. “We do a lot of work on the backend to make sure the experience is meaningful, both for the entire site and for the students.”
