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Each year, thousands of high school and College students Work for some of the nation's leading nonprofit organizations as researchers, legal aides, editors, fundraisers, medical assistants, lobbyists, grant writers, and computer programmers, to name a few. On top of gaining excellent "real world" experience, nonprofit interns also get an in-depth understanding of social problems and solutions. From coach to curator, teacher to translator, students are making a difference -- one internship at a time.

Why Nonprofits?
This sounds like a question for the experts. Take it from Lovell Lemons, director for community service learning at Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA): "Students learn a lot about themselves and their capacity to contribute to the resolution of problems in our community," he says. "They are able to develop their interpersonal skills, learn about people different from themselves, and become more comfortable with going into areas/communities they might not otherwise enter."

Katie Sciarini, a recent graduate of James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA), can attest to this. During her sophomore year of college, Katie interned at the American Red Cross in the Tracing Services Department. This free program is designed to help refugees find family members in times of crisis. "I did everything from walking around and talking to people on the streets and giving presentations in community centers to creating flyers in three different languages," Katie says. "I learned how to approach people and communicate between different cultures."

For Katie, the best part of interning for the Red Cross was promoting something that helps so many people. Today, she works for Immigration and Refugee Services of America and cites her experiences with the Red Cross as directly contributing to her Career choice.

Eva Langston, a senior at the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA), had a similar experience. She spent a summer teaching pre-algebra, algebra, and Greek mythology to at-risk middle-school students, reinforcing her career path. She also spent last summer as a "teaching" intern for a program called Breakthrough Collaborative. Teaching, however, was just one of her many jobs. As a Breakthrough participant, Eva was responsible for supervising after-school activities, organizing field trips, counseling student conflicts, and chaperoning special events. "It was an incredible experience. It made me exhausted and sometimes frustrated, but in the end it was definitely worth it... [Interning] strengthened my desire to teach after Graduation."

Learn What You Love
If you're unsure of your professional plans, internships can help the decision-making process by providing samples of potential careers. When Dan Kessler graduated from college, he had no idea he would one day work for the world's top nonprofit career center. "I wanted to do work that connected to the things I cared about in the world," he says.

Now, Dan is co-director of campus programs for Idealist.org, a Web site created to help individuals find community service-oriented jobs around the globe. It lists over 2,000 socially-conscious internships in areas ranging from economic development to environmental issues.

As a former intern and now employee of Idealist.org, Dan can vouch that an internship can lead to a future job. "It puts a practical spin on people's ideas for their careers. You get to see all the messiness and fun and challenge that goes into it," he says. "When you go out and actually see organizations trying to effect change, it gives you a better idea of what you want to do."

Making a Contribution
Besides gaining experience and career exposure, working for an agency you believe in can make you feel you've done something worthwhile -- like you've made an imprint on the world. Creating change was what inspired Maura Wilson to pursue an internship at ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to improving and empowering low-income communities.

The recent graduate of the College of William and Mary dedicated three months to organizing and mobilizing local residents to collectively fight for some basic services the city often fails to provide, such as regular trash collection, building and property maintenance, and adequate police presence. Organizers like Maura worked to build a "union in the community" in which citizens pay regular dues, and much like a labor union, cooperatively fight for their needs. Seeing progress in motion proved to be the most rewarding part of Maura's experience, she explains. "There was passion, anger, and energy. People from the neighborhood got together to demand that their city council and their police force start doing their jobs and serve their community" says Maura. "It was beautiful, and I felt like a proud mother."

In fact, the work many of these interns do is quite extensive. "The work we do here is real work," says Susi Snyder, acting director for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). "Interns are not brought into our organization to fetch coffee or make copies."

WILPF welcomes between six and 25 interns into the United Nations Office each year. For the lucky candidates, an internship with the U.N. office of the oldest woman's peace organization in the world means researching anything from human security to space weapons.

Interning for a nonprofit, say students who've done so, means being a part of a team committed to changing the very root of problems facing society. It means finding a hard-earned reward beyond a paycheck. It means working, in many cases, under the worst of circumstances in order to become part of the solution. But really, they contend, it's about finding your cause and finding yourself.


Christina Couch is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

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