College of Arts and Sciences

Internship Program

CAS Summer Internship Scholarship Program

Funding for summer internships!

The College of Arts & Sciences provides scholarships for students working unpaid or under-paid internships during the summer months. This page contains eligibility information, funding guidelines, deadlines, and application details. If you have any questions, please read our FAQ section or contact cas.internships@uvm.edu and our team will get back to you shortly!

The application for Summer 2024 funding has passed. Please keep this program in mind for next summer!

Awarding Philosophy

This funding aims to provide assistance to students who express financial need in order to take on an underpaid or unpaid internship during the summer months. The key criteria is whether or not your summer internship can be considered "high impact." CAS and the selection committee have broken down the concept of "high impact" to mean "this student + this time + this opportunity."

You will be asked in the application to:

explain your previous experience and future goals in relationship to your summer internship
explain why pursuing this internship at this time in your academic career will make a difference to your trajectory or help meet your goals
explain why this internship will be a quality experience (i.e. tell us about what your responsibilities, learning goals, and mentorship opportunities will be with the organization in question)

Financial need will also be a factor in the commitee's decision making process.

Application Requirements

The application form is required of all applicants. The form is branched to ensure you are getting to the correct questions for the funds you are eligible for. If you believe there is a mistake or issue with the form, please contact cas.internships@uvm.edu for assistance.

Get Started:

Eligibility Criteria

This program is open to all undergraduate students in the College of Arts & Sciences who will be returning to UVM in the Fall semester (i.e. no graduating seniors)

In order to apply you must ...

have secured or applied for a summer unpaid or underpaid internship*
have adequate knowledge of the internship(s) in order to fully complete the application
be planning to work more than 80 hours at your internship site between May 20th and August 9th

*Unpaid means that you will be recieving less than $500 in compensation for hours or work completed at your internship site/host organization. Underpaid means that you will be earning some compensation from your internship/host organization, but not more than a $4000 total between May and August.

If you are not in CAS, please apply for funding via the UVM Career Center (funding application has closed). All CAS students who do not recieve CAS funding will be automatically considered for funding via the Career Center. No need to apply separately.

Timeline

Item	Date
Application opens	January 17, 2024
Application closes	April 11, 2024
Funding decisions released to students	April 26, 2024
Deadline for required materials (internship confirmation, thank you note, enrolling in credit, etc.)	May 10, 2024
Funding will be distributed via SFS direct deposit	by June 1, 2024

Award Amounts

The maximum award amount will be $4,000 per student. This is an increase from Summer 2023 in an effort to account for inflation and the general increase in the cost of living.

The “aid term” for this award is three months (roughly June, July and August) and the award amounts below were determined based on average living expected expenses for that amount of time ($4k). You will be asked to estimate your income from your internship on the application form to determine which bracket you fall into.

Unpaid interns:

Students who will be paid between $0 and $500 by their internship site and demonstrate financial need (the majority of applicants) are considered “unpaid” and will receive up to $4000.

Under-paid interns:

Students who will be paid between $501 and $1000 by their internship site and demonstrate financial need will receive up to $3499.
Students who will be paid between $1001 and $2000 by their internship site and demonstrate financial need will receive up to $2999.
Students who will be paid between $2001 and $3000 by their internship site and demonstrate financial need will receive up to $1999.
Students who will be paid between $3001 and $4000 by their internship site and demonstrate financial need will be recieve up to $999.

Paid interns:

Students who will be paid $4001 or more by their internship site will not be considered for an award.

Any questions regarding these maximums should be sent to Kelly Smith (kelly.i.smith@uvm.edu).

Available Funds

This year, the College has a total of $141,000 available to award.

Name of Fund	Eligibility Criteria
College of Arts & Sciences Internship Fund	Open to all CAS students interning in all fields.
Seder-Rosen Family Arts and Sciences Internship Fund	Open to all CAS students interning in all fields.
Meredith Bluhm-Wolf Internship Fund	Open to all CAS students interning in all fields.
Guzak Endowed College of Arts & Sciences Internship Fund	Open to all CAS students interning in all fields.
Laibson Summer Internship Endowment	Open to all CAS students interning in the fields of food justice and/or social good.
Arts Internship Fund	Open to all CAS students interning in fields related to the arts.
Department of Economics Internship Funding	Open to Economics majors with an economics-related internship.
Department of Political Science Internship Funding	Open to Political Science majors or minors and students with pre-law internships regardless of major.
Department of History Internship Funding	Open to History majors or minors with a history-related internship.
Department of Art & Art History internship Funding	Open to Studio Art, Art History, or Art Education majors with art-related internships.
Department of English Internship Funding	Open to English majors or minors.
Geography Glass Internship Fund	Open to Geography majors.
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Internship Fund	Open to CRES minors with a 3.3 GPA and an internship related to race and ethnicity in the U.S.

Questions about eligibility for any of these specific funds should be sent to cas.internships@uvm.edu.

International Internships / International Students

If you are planning an internship abroad, your plans will require further approval by the Office of International Education - please contact them ASAP as the approval process can take some time.

Email: studyabroad@uvm.edu
Please also reference their health and safety considerations and Travel Risk Map for going abroad

International students, please be in touch with the Office of International Education to ensure you have the correct VISA approval before embarking upon an internship in the United States.

Awardee Responsibilities

After being notified that you have been awarded summer internship scholarship funding, you will need to submit several items to the CAS Internship Team before recieving your funding:

Proof of internship

If selected for funding, please ask your internship supervisor to write to cas.internships@uvm.edu to confirm your position with their organization. They should include the following information in their email:

Your name
Internship length/approximate number of hours
Pay rate/total pay provided

Thank You Note

Students selected for funding will be required to write a Thank You note to the donors providing our funds. This note should include the following information:

Your name, major, year, and any other info you wish to share about yourself
How this internship will help you fulfil your future goals
What you hope to learn from the internship
A photo of you

Your Thank You note should be...

...at least 300 words
...in the format of a letter
...addressed to "Dear donor,"

Send any questions to cas.internships@uvm.edu

Credit Requirement

If selected for funding via CAS, you MUST enroll in internship credit during the summer term. You have two options to fulfil this requirement:

SINT 2991 - About this course:

Coursework for this online asynchronous class will include hours tracking, 2-3 small assignments, and final reflections.
$100 will be added to your total award amount to cover tuition for this course
This course DOES NOT count for credit toward your degree. (On your degree audit, you will see SINT 2991 appear in the "not counted" section).
You will recieve an override for the course from Kelly Smith after you are notified of your funding. Any questions or issues with registration should be sent to cas.internships@uvm.edu.

CAS 2991 A - About this course:

Coursework for this online asynchronous class will include hours tracking, 5-6 professional development assignments, weekly reflections/blog posts, and a final reflection.
You will be responsible for paying tuition for this course at the UVM Summer Tuition rate.
You can earn anywhere from 1-12 internship credits via this course depending on the number of hours you work at your internship (1 credit = 40 hours). Keep in mind that summer tuition is paid per credit and that CAS students are allowed to count a maximum of 12 internship credits toward their degree.
No override needed. Any questions or issues with registration should be sent to cas.internships@uvm.edu.

Direct Deposit

You must enroll in Direct Deposit via SFS in order to recieve your funding. If you are not yet signed up for direct deposit, please do so in myUVM (instructions on this process are available here: go.uvm.edu/directdeposit). This will allow UVM to deposit your award money directly in your bank account. You may already be enrolled in direct deposit through PeopleSoft, but this is a different system, so please do check to make sure you are signed up in myUVM! 

FAQ

How many students will be funded?

Over the past few years, CAS recieved an average of ~115 applications and awarded ~75 students--a ~65% award rate. Because award amounts are variable, we are not able to predict how many awards will be given this year, but all students are encouraged to apply, just in case! The waitlist does tend to move quickly as students' plans change. If you're not awarded funding from CAS, your application will be forwarded to the Career Center for further consideration through their funding process.

What if I have applied to multiple internships?

If you've applied to multiple internships, great! You are on top of things! You'll be asked on the application to fill out the Internship Information section for each internship you wish to apply for funding for. This is to ensure your application is routed to all of the awards it is eligible for (some department awards have requirements that the internship be related to the major/minor, so if you're a History major applying to the Vermont Historical Society and CitiBank, your Vermont Historical Society internship will be considered by the History Dept. but your CitiBank internship will be considered for CAS-wide funding). Any questions about this process should be sent to cas.internships@uvm.edu and we will do our best to help!

What if I land multiple internships?

Great work! We're happy for you. However, we can only award each student one time--while you may have multiple positions, you are still only one person with one apartment and one mouth to feed. Your income from both internships will be added up and your award tier will be adjusted accordingly to ensure the maximum number of students can benefit from summer funding. Thank you for being honest about your need!

What if I'm waitlisted?

Students on the waitlist will be contacted between May 10 and June 1 as students withdraw from the process. This most commonly occurs if students land a paid internship, if their internship plans fall through, or if they recieve funding from another source. Students waitlisted from CAS funding are also considered for the Career Center funding automatically.

What if I still have financial need but am earning $4,000 or more from my internship site?

CAS is only able to provide funding that will bring students up to the maximum expected expense for the "aid term" of 3 months--$4,000.

What if I'm a Dual-Degree student?

You should apply for CAS funding if one or more of your majors is in CAS! CAS students who apply here will automatically be considered for Career Center funding if they do not get awarded by CAS, so please only submit the one application to CAS.

What if I'm not awarded funding from CAS?

If you're not awarded funding from CAS, your application will be forwarded to the Career Center for further consideration through their funding process. Any questions about this can be sent to Kristen Andrews at Kristen.Andrews@uvm.edu.

History of the CAS Summer Internship Scholarship Program

Started in 2015, the CAS Summer Internship Scholarship Program was created to help reduce barriers for students in the College of Arts & Sciences who take on unpaid or underpaid summer internships. By centralizing promotion, application collection, and funding disbursement, administrative pressure on departments was reduced and more students have been able to take advantage of available funds. Over the past 9 years, 318 students have been awarded through this program!

CAS Internship Program