Cohort program funds internships

The largest cohort of Summer Leadership Fellows is set for action this upcoming summer.

Hosted by the Experience Hub and Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement, Summer Leadership Fellows is a program centered on providing students with endowments to pursue a 40-hour, 10-week internship through non-profit or government organizations over the summer. Each student is provided with a $6,000 stipend for their internship. This year’s cohort is made of up 82 students.

The program is composed of three main endowments: John Brandl Scholars, Fleischhacker Fellows and Marie and Robert Jackson Fellows. The oldest endowment is the Marie and Robert Jackson Fellows, which began in 2008, then John Brandl Scholars in 2009 and followed by Fleishhacker Fellows in 2017.

“All three are endowments where the purpose is providing students opportunities to engage in and work towards the common good,” said Angie Schmidt Whitney, executive director of the Experience and Professional Development Office. “We know that internships are really significant experiences for a lot of people, but we don’t want it to be the case where finances prevent you from doing that.”

The Fleishchhacker Center for Ethical Leadership in Action is a $10 million endowment specifically for CSB students. Both Bennies and Johnnies can apply for the John Brandl Scholars and Marie Robert Jackson Fellows.

A few years ago, the three endowments were combined under one name to make them more accessible and inclusive for students.

“Historically, the applications were separate. We realized that at the end of the day [we should] streamline this and make this more cohesive and easier for students to access. We pulled all three of the funding sources together under the umbrella of Summer Leadership Fellows,” Whitney said.

Students must undergo an application and interview process to be considered for the endowment. On the application, they are asked to list five possible locations they may want to intern, giving them a head start on places to apply if accepted into the program.

In addition to students’ own brainstorming, Handshake provides a list of all the places that any fellow has ever interned at to give students a resource to narrow their search.

“It’s important for people to just apply. They don’t need to have a full plan as the mentors help with that,” said Matt Lindstrom, director of the McCarthy Center.

The increase in students for this year’s cohort parallels the endowment money availability.

“Every year, the endowment for this program grows, which allows us to select more students,” Lindstrom said.

Three of the 82 students are funded by the Global Health Fellows grant. This grant is not an endowment like the rest of the scholarships due to its recent development, but is still considered a subcategory of the Summer Leadership Fellows.

The Summer Leadership Fellows program allows students like CSB junior Bella Brinkman to pursue internships in organizations that may not offer financial benefits. Brinkman plans to intern in a hospital system as part of a diversity and inclusion team.

“There’s not a lot of paid internships in this field. The Summer Leadership Fellows gives me the opportunity to take these types of internships without the financial burden of taking an unpaid internship,” Brinkman said.

Brinkman will work with various teams, like human resources and community outreach, to strive toward general health equity.

CSB sophomore Sarah Skrove has an internship with Totus Tuus this summer. Totus Tuus is a Catholic youth program focused on teaching children about the gospel. Skrove hopes this internship opportunity will help her indubitably discern if this career path is something she wants to further pursue.

“I know how I can live as a theology major [at CSB/SJU] and share it with my friends and family and get excited about it here, but I don’t really know how that looks in the real world,” Skrove said. “I don’t know if this experience is going to tell me exactly what to do with my life, but I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I know [Totus Tuus] is where I’m supposed to be this summer.”