Employers, before you offer an internship you may be asking: how much does it really matter if it’s paid, or unpaid?
The difference, in my experience, is night and day.
I grew up in the projects of Brownsville, Brooklyn, and became the first in my family to go to college. For the first part of my academic career, I attended severely under-resourced schools. My family and I struggled to find ways to improve our chances of moving out of the projects and finding better school options.
Fortunately, in middle school, I was selected to join the Oliver Scholars, which prepares high-achieving Black and Latino students from underserved New York City communities for success at independent schools and colleges. As part of their support structure for Scholars, they helped me identify paid internship opportunities.
In paid positions like Good Housekeeping Magazine and Book of the Month Club, I was able to learn invaluable professional skills such as how to prepare for meetings, meet deadlines and see first hand what daily life was like in the publishing industry. I was able to begin to envision my own future career path. I was mentored by phenomenal people who I felt valued my contributions and perspectives.
But while all of my internships - paid and unpaid - connected me to invaluable mentors and life lessons, it was the paid internships that made the long-term difference in my career. Why? Because the paychecks they delivered enabled me to prepare for, freely launch and - still many years later - enjoy my career at levels and in ways that would be already be enjoyed by my affluent peers with whom I would be competing for jobs.
For example, paid internships allowed me to work less during the school year and instead focus much more on academics, which meant I could take more courses in Latino Studies, a subject I care about deeply. Paid internships also allowed me to outright afford my books, my meal plan, and other unexpected costs that arose -- without incurring what could later have become suffocating long-term debt affecting life choices available to me.
Finally, paid internships allowed me to experience things like studying abroad that gave me the ‘world-wide’ lens that I use today when considering the unique viewpoints and perspectives of my clients.
I feel lucky to have had more than one internship that also came with a paycheck - not everyone does. But paid internships can become the cornerstone of your financial and career success throughout life.
Today, I am a project manager at Kitamba, a social impact consulting organization with a commitment to expanding the diversity of thinking, experiences, and professional identities within a field that directly and substantially aids communities and people.
Our team knows that if we want to increase the number of students of color who enter our field, we can’t assume that they already have ways to get here. We have to actively create opportunities and experiences for students, especially of color, to explore career pathways and pursue passions without having to make financial sacrifices that can injure long-term success.
That is why Kitamba has launched our first-ever paid summer intern Fellowship program. Participants will be immersed full-time into consulting itself, with opportunities to work on a wide variety of projects that aim to improve public education.
We hope that other organizations join us to support students of color by developing and creating high-quality - and, you guessed it: paid - internships.
Indeed, without such opportunities, I would not be where I am today.