Movement Talent is excited to welcome our first-ever summer interns in 2023. We’ve learned so much from working with Nihar and Leticia – who you’ll get to know a bit more about below – and look forward to continuing to expand our internship opportunities in the future.
We’ve also learned a lot about creating meaningful internship experiences along the way. Here are our top tips:
Ensure your interns are compensated! Ideally, all organizations would have the budget to pay interns competitive salaries. But we do not always operate in an ideal world. If the ability to pay a salary is outside your organization’s capacity, there are still ways to compensate interns for their time and efforts. Explore university programs that provide financial support to place students into internships at no cost to the employer. If local universities don’t have these programs, you still have options. The student might go to school across the country, but their university will pay for an internship in their hometown during the summer, helping the intern to minimize housing costs.
Other valuable examples of compensation we’ve seen are an arts organization that provided unlimited monthly transit passes for interns since the administrative office and the performance space were close to transit stations. Yet other organizations have created flexible, part-time opportunities that allow interns to work paying jobs alongside their internships. Crucially, supervisors were understanding of the need for the intern to sometimes prioritize paid over unpaid labor.
A growing body of research demonstrate the value of compensated internships, including introducing greater diversity in your applicant pool and supporting higher job placement rates even before students graduate. That being said, compensated internships are not an equity panacea. Providing such opportunities to historically underrepresented groups is one of many steps, as access to networks and social capital are still crucial to landing a job.
Ask interns what they want to get out of their experience. Internships are often just a few weeks long, so to make the most of that time, discuss with interns early how their time with your organization can help them advance their professional and personal goals. Then work to align their goals with their tasks and their teams.
Give interns meaningful work. This starts with setting expectations: both intern and supervisor should clearly understand their tasks and objectives. This continues with thinking creatively about what counts as “work.” Regular (but optional) social hours might be meaningful to an all-remote team. Also, try offering up time for interns to ask questions about career pathways, work-life balance, and – to the extent that you’re comfortable chatting about them – topics about the world beyond work.
We’d love to hear your tips for others hosting interns – drop us a note! Now, let’s learn about Movement Talent’s 2023 summer interns.
Nihar Nuthikattu
Where do you go to college, and what are you majoring in?
I’m a rising sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, and I intend to major in Business.
What drew you to this opportunity with Movement Talent?
I was initially drawn to Movement Talent because of the tight-knit nature of the team, but the commitment to a practical vision is what has made me stay. Movement Talent actualizes ideas into articulable solutions to pressing problems within the job-match industry, and having had the opportunity to work on projects with a tangible impact as an intern has reaffirmed my impression furthermore.
What are you hoping to get out of this internship?
I hope to gain a better understanding of the operational difficulties of smaller organizations and apply those skills to my future consulting endeavors. Moreover, learning about scalability, budget structure, and organizational development has been a delight thus far. I hope that in the future, I can take these skills to assist companies with a just cause in need of radical change and development.
What are you excited to contribute during your internship?
Throughout the internship, I hope to be able to mold my social justice acumen working at the SFDA office alongside my business expertise into a cohesive solution-based experience. I love problem-solving and practicing creative solution-making, and that’s exactly what I intend to do during my time here.
Any fun plans for the summer you want to share?
I just went skydiving, but other than that, I’m looking forward to orientation training for my college and to have my own group of freshman to help get acclimated to the college environment!
Leticia Reyes
Where do you go to school?
I’m a fourth year at the University of California, Berkeley.
What drew you to this opportunity with Movement Talent?
I wanted the opportunity to learn more about different roles in movement spaces. I am currently at a time where I am trying to decide post-undergraduate plans and felt that an internship at Movement Talent could help in shaping my plans.
What are you hoping to get out of this internship?
I hope to learn about different people’s experiences in a variety of progressive spaces.
What are you excited to contribute during your internship?
I am excited to contribute new ideas and perspectives on whatever projects I am tasked with.
Any fun plans for the summer you want to share?
I get to see Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey in August! Have been a fan of them both for a very long time, and this will be my first time seeing them live.