College students who decide to spend the summer
working for a nonprofit organization often must
choose commitment and ideology over the bottom
line. "Realistically, you could be paid a lot more
to do something meaningless. You can get a summer
job working for some corporation, pushing papers
all day," said Rebecca Sher, an assistant director
of The Fund for Public Interest Research's
Campaign to Save the Earth. "A lot of nonprofit
organizations don't pay anything at all."
For Anthony Chang, a Cornell senior who interned
with Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) last
summer in New York City, that wasn't an issue.
"I'm in a fortunate position where money is not
necessarily an issue," Chang says. "I don't have
any [student] loans."
Not all students are so fortunate. But there are
now a number of nonprofits which can compete with
businesses for college students by offering paid
internships, often through the generosity of an
outside organization or philanthropist. FFPIR's
Campaign to Save the Earth pays interns between
three and five thousand dollars for the summer.
The money, which comes from the Sierra Club and
also from fundraising, helps FFPIR attract more
than 1,000 students for the summer.
Chang's internship with AAFE last summer was also
a paid position. AAFE is one of 56 nonprofits that
receive money from the Everett Public Service
Internship Program. More than 200 interns are paid
at least $200 per week, from a fund established by
Henry and Edith Everett in 1989.
While stipends make internships with nonprofits
more attractive, students who apply for them are
generally attracted more by the opportunity to do
something meaningful. And many paying nonprofit
organizations offer very little monetary reward.
"Service is relatively important to me," Chang
says. "Working for a nonprofit is just one way to
serve."
Chang interned at two different nonprofits over
the past two summers: AAFE last summer, and the
Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) in
Washington, D.C. the summer before. Besides
offering Chang an opportunity to serve, both
organizations attracted him because they coincided
with his interests. Chang, a government and
economics major with a concentration in interior
design, plans to work in real estate after
graduating, helping to redevelop rundown places
and polluted sites. "Primarily it's the nonprofits
that can bridge the gap between private and public
financing to get the job done," Chang says.
At CPA, Chang did policy research on multiple
topics, all related to community development:
"childcare facility financing, brownfield
(environmentally polluted sites that require
remediation in order for you to build anything on
top of them) redevelopment, and telecommunications
for the underserved populations," he explains.
Over the next year, Chang's interests became more
specific, and so his internship the following
summer with AAFE was more focused. He worked with
AAFE's Planning and Development Department, which
develops lowincome housingas Chang puts it,
"They build things." The department also offers
technical assistance to other nonprofits. "I did a
lot of work helping prepare that stuff: everything
from logistics of a workshop (you need lunch, you
need to confirm with people) and event planning to
office worksending faxes, writing letters," Chang
says.
Chang also participated in two special activities
outside his daily duties. "One of my first weeks
there we were invited to perform The Unicorn
Dance, for the big opening of the Staten Island
Botanical Gardens," Chang says. The garden was
constructed entirely using Chinese architects,
builders, and materials, and the organizers of the
opening ceremony invited AAFE and other relevant
New York City organizations to participate. At the
end of the summer, Chang helped run a large street
festival sponsored by AAFE. "It was a big event,
where a lot of other organizations could offer
their services to Chinatown residents," Chang
explains.
Ben Siegel, a Yale senior, also did an
Everettsponsored internship last summer. He
worked at the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility in New York City. ICCR, a coalition
of 275 religious organizations, advocates for
environmental and social change. Siegel prepared
reports for the Global Corporate Accountability
division, on topics like the religious
communities' view of a living wage and on the
socially conscious investment policies of the
religious community. He also compiled information
and documents for ICCR to send to member
organizations. "The people were very friendly and
very intelligent," Siegel says. "They got a lot
done. Overall, it was a great experience."
The Everett program organized many special
activities for its interns in New York City.
Approximately every week during the summer,
Everett interns met to hear a representative from
a nonprofit organization speak and to talk to each
other about their work. "It's a great program,"
Siegel says. "It connects a lot of people, and you
hear a lot of interesting speakers."
Both Chang and Siegel enjoyed their internships
enough to plan to work in related fields after
graduation. Chang is currently interested in two
jobs. "I'm applying for a fellowship offered by
the New York City Department of Health and Human
Development; they do a lot of work with
communitydevelopment organizations like AAFE," he
says. He is also applying for a job with ICF
Consulting, a consulting firm which specializes in
helping clients manage natural, physical,
economic, and community resources in a sustainable
way.
Siegel will be working for a
campaignfinancereform Public Interest Research
Group (PIRG) in either California or Oregon. "My
decision to work at the PIRGs was definitely
influenced by my internship," Siegel says. "After
completing the internship, I had a much better
idea of what it was like to work for a nonprofit,
and I realized that advocating for positive social
change was definitely something that was both
interesting and extremely rewarding."
Carl Bialik likes making money AND doing good
things.
