A student asks, “Is it common for students to do summer internships either on campus or off campus in Champaign-Urbana area? Are there good opportunities for interns in the summer?”
Answer:
“Common”? No–so many of our students prefer to spend the summer at home. Many are from the Chicago area where there are more opportunities and they can live at home for free.
“Does it happen?” Absolutely!
Among the possibilities for locating something:
- The LAS in CU Internship Fair, coming up on Wed., Oct. 19, 1 – 3 pm in the Illini Union. All the employers are local to CU, and some are offering summer internships.
- UIntern: this program places students with local nonprofit agencies for part-time unpaid summer internships. It doesn’t get underway until the spring semester, but you can find some information about it at the link.
- Keep an eye on I-Link–summer internships in east central Illinois do get posted there.
- Research Park (http://researchpark.illinois.edu/careers) Most of their internships are very tech-focused, but they do periodically offer opportunities in communications, marketing, social media, and the like. Most internships are year-round, full-time in the summer and part-time when classes start.
- The Illini Career and Internship Fair (details on I-Link, under “Events” tab): some local organizations come to this event to recruit summer interns.
- In spring, stay tuned to our webpage and emails, as other kinds of on-campus opportunities tend to come up then (both internships and professionally relevant paid employment): summer youth camps on campus that require staff, fall programs that have a summer start-up period, research opportunities, and the like.
Have questions about job-hunting, getting internships, planning for post-graduation life as an English/CW major? Email kwilcox@illinois.edu.