The cost of living is a big factor in internship options

This summer, senior Mike Yeomans accepted an unpaid internship with Friends of the Children in New York City and commuted to his internship from his parents' house in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Yeomans said that getting the internship he had wanted had been logistically easy because he had known he could commute from his parents' house. He said he had worked 40 hours a week, so he had not had time for a part-time job. He was fortunate to receive the David D. Burhans Civic Fellowship from the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement to supplement his unpaid internship, Yeomans said.

Commuting to New York City from Yeoman's parents' house helped with the cost of living expenses, he said.

In a recent Office of Alumni and Career Services survey, Richmond students indicated they were most interested in internships and jobs located in New York City or Washington, D.C., said Katybeth Lee, manager of Internship Programs at OACS.

Lee said her main goal was to determine how to help students have valuable experiences in the summer, so that they were prepared to be competitive for jobs.

Most for-profit companies paid their interns, with the exception of internships in media and entertainment industries, she said. Finance, accounting and marketing are fields with the greatest concentration of paid internships, she said. Non-profits and government internships vary with offering paid internships, Lee said.

"This has been identified as a big problem for students and especially as we focus on access and affordability as a part of the Richmond promise," Lee said.

She said that a critical part of helping students with internships was figuring out how they could afford cost of living expenses.

In response to this problem, Lee said that OACS would launch a program called Spider Internship Funds. Money will be available to students seeking non-profit or government internships and will help cover housing, travel, food and other expenses, she said.

Leslie Stevenson, director of Career Services for OACS, said the funds would provide money to students with non-profit and government internships because the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Department of Labor were currently reviewing the legitimacy of unpaid internships at for-profit companies.

For the first year, funds will be able to assist about 10 students, depending on application requests, Lee said. But the number is expected to grow over time, she said.

When asked to give advice to students stressed about living expenses during their internship, Stevenson said she recommended that students "cast a wide net" when seeking jobs and internships.

Ben Sommerfeld, a 2010 graduate, benefited from not limiting himself to New York City or Washington D.C., when searching for an internship, he said.

"I was going the business route and knew how valuable an internship was ... I honestly thought the jobs I was looking for were only in Philadelphia, New York City or somewhere out East," Sommerfeld, a Wisconsin native, said.

"When I think of the Twin Cities and Minneapolis, I think 'Oh that's not business,' " he said.

Sommerfeld was pleasantly surprised when he found a paid business analyst internship in the summer of 2009 with Target in Minneapolis, a half hour from his parents' Wisconsin home, he said. After his internship, he received a job offer and currently works as a business analyst at Target Corp. in Minneapolis, he said.

"One of the things that is really important is that students fixate on the word 'internship,'" Lee said. "And it's not the word 'internship' that gets employers excited; it's related experience that demonstrates the skills that are important in that field or position."

Danielle Veilleux, manager of Regional Recruitment for Virginia and West Virginia at Teach For America, said TFA looked for a skill set that would include leadership and achievement, perseverance in the face of challenges and obstacles, strong critical thinking skills, the ability to listen and motivate others, strong organizational skills and the ability to effectively manage multiple responsibilities at once.

Veilleux said that these skills could be developed in a variety of settings, whether at an internship, job or extra-curricular activity.

To address the issue of cost of living expenses for students seeking internships, Stevenson said that OACS had created Lee's position, manager of internship programs, in December 2011 to reflect the institutional priority of increasing access and affordability to all students seeking internships.

Contact staff writer Madeline Small at madeline.small@richmond.edu