Internship Program: The Office of Career Services

In order to maintain the rigor of their education, Sarah Lawrence students seeking academic credit for a fall, spring or summer internship are required to complete a practicum or fieldwork course. The Office of Career Services stays in close contact with each student’s employer, working in tandem with the faculty sponsor to make each internship a supervised learning experience.

Fieldwork, offered year-round, allows students to collaborate with a faculty sponsor to design and complete an independent study around their internship. The practicum courses, offered during the academic year, enable students to learn in a Socratic environment with peers also completing internships. Past practicum offerings include “Foundations in Workplace Culture and Wellbeing” and “SLCeeds: Ideas from Concept to Creation.”

The Internship Travel Stipend Fund has been established to provide travel assistance to students receiving need-based financial aid from the college that are participating in unpaid internships during the academic year. Eligible students can receive a $450 travel stipend to help offset commuting costs. Students can apply for the stipend through the Office of Career Services.

Many students benefit from alumni-donated funds to support the commute to and from various internships in NYC, as well as the surrounding Westchester area.

The Annette Cravens Fund for Visual Arts (Summer)

The Fund is established to support students seeking direct contact with works of art and material culture to complement their academic and professional goals. Cravens Internships are funded summer internships with the intention to offer students the opportunity to explore careers in the visual arts and gain valuable experience in museums, galleries, exhibition spaces, community centers, and similar cultural venues. Eligible students who have secured a visual arts internship will receive a $3,500 stipend.

Recent internship placements included: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, White Columns, the International Print Center of New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Redleaf Fund for internships in specific nonprofit organizations (Summer)

Ten students who receive an internship at participating nonprofit organizations will be eligible to receive a $4,500 stipend. Participating organizations will be confirmed by the end of the fall semester.  Previous organizations included:

• ACLU—National
• ACLU—Minnesota
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State
• Growth & Justice
• People Serving People
• Think Small
• Way to Grow

The Mary Lynn Marx Bianco Summer Fellowship/Internship in Music

The Mary Lynn Marx Bianco Summer Fellowship/Internship in Music provides undergraduate students with financial support to attend and/or participate in summer festivals, unpaid internships or other opportunities in a music-related field. For more information, please contact Professor John Yannelli in the music department.

The Beth Block Foundation

In honor of Beth’s formative experiences as an undergraduate student at Sarah Lawrence College, the Beth Block Foundation, in conjunction with the Sarah Lawrence College’s Visual Arts Program is offering a $2,000.00 stipend to an undergraduate student who is undertaking a summer internship in fine art and/or documentary photography. Application deadline is May 1st.

Summer Science Externships/The Suzanne Salter Arkin Science Endowment

The Suzanne Salter Arkin Science Endowment is established to attract outstanding science students to the College who want to study science with the individual approach for which Sarah Lawrence is famous. The Endowment will support students participating in Summer Science Externships at major laboratories, hospitals, educational and research institutions, and companies in the New York area and beyond. Externs are selected by competitive application from the most advanced participants in the College's on-campus Summer Science Research Program or similar program, and must be serious in their desire to make science their life’s work. Following a successful externship, students may have the opportunity to continue their scientific work throughout the academic year. Accepted students will receive a $4,000 stipend which will support them during this opportunity for meaningful undergraduate research. Acceptance will be need-, sex-, and ethnicity-blind.

For more information regarding this Externship funding, please contact Dress Cressman, Department of Biology at dcressma@sarahlawrence.edu.

• The internship description and communication from employer should clearly state:
  • Description of intern responsibilities with clear expectations and deliverables
  • The type of training provided and how training will be provided
• Supervision/mentoring provided including the communication plan with preferred methods of communication:
  • Number of hours the intern will be working on projects per week
  • Number of direct supervision/mentoring hours the intern will be provided per week
  • Methods of communication: Email, Phone conferences, Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom, etc.
  • Schedule/process for checking in with supervisor regarding progress reports (i.e., daily, weekly, etc.)
  • Clear commitment of time and technology/tools required of intern
  • Opportunities to present work and/or collaborate with other employees
• There should be clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.
• There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.