New initiative expands internships for students in Federal Work-Study program

By Joan Tupponce

Virginia Commonwealth University students looking for a paid internship have a new option: the Transforming Federal Work-Study Internship Program. The pilot initiative helps elevate a set of on-campus FWS opportunities into internships that promote career readiness.

"The Federal Work-Study program at VCU had become very well-utilized," said Samara Reynolds, executive director of VCU Career Services in the Division of Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success. "When this idea came about, we felt confident we would have both students and campus partners interested."

Data revealed that some job supervisors had already created career-related opportunities for students within FWS. The new program, funded administratively through the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and directly to participating students through FWS, will extend that commitment.

"This grant would be a chance to grow that by recognizing the good work already happening at VCU and expanding it," Reynolds said.

The Transforming program will help elevate and align on-campus internship opportunities that are "new or already available, to ensure that students are getting access to them," said Aimee Selleck, job location and development coordinator in VCU Career Services.

The new internship experiences will include mentoring, guided reflection (on the work's connection to personal and professional goals) and hands-on learning to support students on their career journey. In covering that trio of components, internships in the Transforming program are officially designated as REAL Level 3 experiences. A student's completion of the program in 2024-25 will satisfy theirREAL graduation requirement, as it is an approved co-curricular transformative learning experience.

"Additionally, we are customizing the mentorship component of the internship experience to have supervisors focus with their interns specifically on the eight NACE Career Readiness Competencies, so that students can intentionally engage and reflect upon these topics and utilize their FWS internship to intentionally hone career readiness skills for the future," Reynolds said.

The internships will help students build relevant skills to support their pursuit of future internships with off-campus employers, full-time employment and graduate and professional school programs.

VCU Career Services has selected, onboarded and trained 50 supervisors in 44 departments, ranging from the School of the Arts and the School of Education to the Division of Community Engagement and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Each has posted at least one internship opportunity.

"We have over 100 internship slots for students who want to engage in the program," Selleck said.

The goal is to have students in the program onboarded and engaged by early September. Students who have been offered and have accepted their FWS award for the 2024-25 academic year via eServices may begin to apply for the Transforming internships in Handshake.

"There will be opportunities for all class years, including graduate students who want to participate, as long as they meet individual posting requirements," Reynolds said. "These internships offer intentional career readiness experiences on campus versus students having to go off campus to find awesome career-related work-based learning opportunities. Once we set the foundation this year, we plan to scale the program up to engage even more students and supervisors in the future."

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