Micro-internships offer real-world experience in 60 hours
Jake Beck and Oviya Kumar balanced schoolwork and professional projects through the UNC Career Center program.
College internships offer exciting opportunities for students. They can open doors, expand boundaries and give students a clearer understanding of the career path they want to take. They can also be time-consuming.
The UNC Career Center’s micro-internship program has a unique solution to this tension.
The paid internships give students the opportunity to explore career paths and industries through a short-term project focused on a topic like data analysis or customer service.
“The employers have 60 hours of the students’ time, and the Career Center pays for those 60 hours,” said Monica Jackson, assistant director of employer engagement.
Despite the shorter time frame, the program is structured so students can gain meaningful, hands-on experience while employers receive support on specific projects. It’s a practical option for both sides without the long-term commitment of a traditional internship.
“Students get the opportunity to participate in internships with nonprofits and art employers,” Jackson said. “These are places that are usually low-staffed, and some of these employers have never had an intern before, so it’s beneficial to both them and the students.”
Last fall, Jake Beck, a master’s student at the UNC School of Social Work, interned for Impartial Inc., a nonprofit based in Morrisville, North Carolina. Its mission is to transform the U.S. criminal justice landscape through collaboration. Beck’s role as a marketing intern focused on expanding Impartial’s outreach, connecting with bar associations and law schools to amplify incarcerated individuals’ artwork across the country.
Beck even created a database of law schools, state bars and trade associations that Impartial can use for future projects.
Directly engaging with institutions and organizations in the Carolina community is something Beck hopes to carry into his academics and broader career, as he intends to become a full-time social worker.
“So much of what we talk about in regard to social work in class is engaging with community,” Beck said. “The internship really connected with that.”
Another micro-internship participant was Oviya Kumar, a junior double-majoring in medical anthropology and community and global public health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Kumar was a project intern for Club Nova, a rehabilitation center in Carrboro for individuals with mental illness. Her responsibility was handling the member satisfaction survey, which required her to interview members young and old.
“I actually struggled my first week trying to get responses,” Kumar said. “But after earning people’s trust and making connections, I was able to get tons of responses. And it felt very rewarding at the end of the internship to share my findings with the organization.”
While it was a shorter internship, Kumar thinks the length offered real benefits.
“I was never bored at any point,” Kumar said. “It was nice feeling immersed quickly. In past roles, it’s easy to be hesitant to dip your toe into a project. But with the micro-internship, it was nice to have support but still be thrown in and get started right away.”
Beck felt the same way and says he’ll continue to look back on his micro-internship with fondness.
“It’s nice to be able to do meaningful work and still have a flexible schedule,” Beck said. “I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to balance their schoolwork with real-world experience.”
