Thanks to a new grant, William & Mary will enhance the internship experience for undergraduates by pairing them with faculty mentors.

The $150,000 grant from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership will also help reduce the cost of credit-bearing courses associated with internships.

“We know the value of internships and how important the relationships between faculty and students are in terms of professional growth,” said Philip D. Heavilin II, director of internships and applied learning in the Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement. “Classroom learning lays the foundation with knowledge and theory, while internships bring those lessons to life, offering real-world challenges that sharpen skills, build confidence, and bridge the gap between education and career.”

SCHEV is the state’s coordinating agency for higher education. In total, this round of grant funding awarded $3.9 million to increase internship opportunities at 20 Virginia colleges and universities. This is the third grant W&M has received from SCHEV to amplify internship programs in the last 14 months.

The grants support W&M’s commitment to Careers, one of four cornerstone initiatives of the Vision 2026 strategic plan. One of the goals of the initiative is to provide a funded internship or other applied learning experience for every undergraduate by 2026. In the latest Princeton Review report, William & Mary ranks among the top 10 public universities for internships. In 2023, Princeton Review named William & Mary the best public institution for internships for the third consecutive year.

Removing barriers to work experience

In summer 2023, leaders with the Charles Center and the Office of Career Development and Professional Engagement collaborated with Arts & Sciences faculty to develop a three-credit course for student interns.

“The goal was to make sure each intern got the most possible out of their work experience by having faculty help students see the connection between a liberal arts education and what they’d be asked to do in a workplace,” said Elizabeth Harbron, director of the Charles Center.

The course solved one challenge – keeping track of who was doing what and how it went.

“Having interns enroll in the course benefited them but also the overall internship effort,” Heavilin said. “Our students go off in so many directions, and it’s important to have a way of tracking them. The course becomes part of the student’s transcript, providing a means of tracking student participation in an applied learning experience.”

One of the goals of W&M’s internship program is to decrease financial and structural barriers to internships, prioritizing paid opportunities so students who need a summer job don’t have to choose between a valuable professional experience or seasonal work that will provide wages.

Requiring students to enroll in a for-credit class as part of an internship meant costs for the student, including summer school fees.

“It was hard to say you won this internship and you will be paid, but you’re going to have to pay summer school fees to do it,” Harbron said. The SCHEV grant will now allow the university to offer a one-credit course in summer 2025 that keeps the internship on a student’s record without making it a financial burden.

The grant will also provide a stipend for faculty who take on 10 to 15 interns as mentees during their summer internships. Heavilin estimates the additional funding will enable W&M to offer the one-credit course to up to 120 students.

The real value of internships

William & Mary has long been working to provide students with internship funding through such opportunities as the Funding for Unpaid and Underfunded Student Experiences (F.U.S.E.) program.

The university saw an 86% increase in the number of students who received funding for unpaid and underfunded internship offerings between 2023 and 2024. This new SCHEV grant will allow W&M to expand those efforts and continue seeking ways to make internships equally accessible, reaching the Vision 2026 goal of funding an internship for every qualified undergraduate student by 2026.

Internships offered to students run the gamut from art-related projects to scientific research to journalism and democracy initiatives. In total, about 24,878 internships are posted for W&M students each year.

Heavilin notes that research continually shows that undergraduates who participate in internships have a higher rate of success finding jobs once they graduate, even if they choose a different career path than the one in the field of their internship.

“We want students to try things,” he said. “Some things are going to work out and some are not. Each is equally valuable because it helps a student figure out what the next steps are. It’s difficult to make decisions when you’re not trying anything.”

Harbron said she considers an internship a success even if it makes a student realize it’s “time to pivot.”

“You want to discover that in time to tweak your coursework or change direction,” she said.

SCHEV is particularly interested in exposing undergraduates to career paths in Virginia. “That’s a priority for them,” Heavilin said. “They want to help students engage in opportunities that are here, so students have a chance to see what the regional economy looks like.”