OHIO students invited to apply for Community-Based Internships

OHIO’s Center for Community Engagement is seeking applicants for Community-Based Internships for Summer 2024.

This program connects students to nonprofit and public sector organizations to engage in mutually beneficial internships that provide students with high impact experiential learning opportunities and provide community partners with tangible outcomes that directly benefit the southeast Ohio region.

“Since its pilot in 2019, the Community-Based Internship program has established a reputation that it fosters immense success for both the participating students and the community partners,” explains Mary Nally, director of the Center for Community Engagement. “Students gain hands-on experience and networking opportunities while the community partners benefit from capacity support, tangible results to address their priority issues, and a deeper relationship with the University.”

The Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia, The Mount Zion Black Cultural Center, Building Bridges to Careers, the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development (COAD), and Indivisible Appalachia Ohio are the participating community partners this year.

Last year, Katelyn Rousch ‘23, spent the summer with COAD as a Pathways HUB intern and worked to help connect people with community health workers who assist in care coordination across southeastern Ohio.

“I think the community planning specifically, and learning to develop communities around these environmental and social factors of health is something that’s really interesting to me,” Rousch reflected at the end of the program. “I don’t know if I would have realized how interesting that was and how essential that was without this kind of position.”

“It’s good for us to be able to connect with the amazing resource of these students and provide hands-on experience for them” said Delia Palmisano, the director of communications and philanthropy at ORCA. She stated that she also sees impact beyond the tangible projects their student interns accomplish, as through the program ORCA “connects [interns] with some of these smaller communities that a student might not see otherwise, and I think it’s really important.”

Interested students can view and apply to Summer 2024 positions via the links below at ohio.givepulse.com:

• Building Bridges to Careers Data Management Intern
• Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia Retail and Merchandise Marketing Intern
• Mount Zion Black Cultural Center Marketing and Development Intern
• Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development Community Outreach and Efficiency Intern
• Indivisible Appalachian Ohio Community Ambassador

Positions are 20 hours per week for ten weeks from May 13-July 19. Compensation is $11 per hour plus mileage reimbursement. F-1 visa holders must enroll in the CPT program to participate. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 29, 2024.