Project Sponsor Details: Short Internships Projects (SHIPs)

Summer Short Internship Projects (SHIPs)

A Guide for Alums, Campus Partners, Employers, and Parents

Wellesley's Short Internship Projects (SHIPs) are short-term (60-80 hours), virtual internship projects that can be completed by first- and second-year Wellesley students. The SHIPs program allows students to gain professional experience by working on a real-world project for an alum, employer, parent, or campus partner while organizations benefit from student support.

Project submissions are open until March 25, 2024.

Students will apply to projects from April 1 – 15, and hiring should occur by May 15, 2024. Projects should be completed between the dates of June 1 – July 31. Sponsors for all approved projects will receive further instructions related to hiring and timelines.

Wellesley Career Education stipend funding can support students working on SHIPs for incorporated nonprofit and profit organizations. Stipends are not available for students working on SHIPs with organizations owned or operated by the student’s immediate family, or projects sponsored by political campaigns.

Sample Short Internship Projects

Fundraising
Fundraising
Support nonprofit development work for a youth advocacy foundation
Social Media
Social Media
Design social media posts and write copy for a community arts organization
Megaphone
Communications
Draft a project communication plan for a public health company
Laptop
Online Education
Conduct curriculum development research for a virtual learning company
book
Publishing
Edit an annotated bibliography for a publishing company
Public Health
Public Health
Support a public health community organization that serves individuals dealing with substance abuse and homelessness

Participant Quotes

"The reflection I've undergone and the relationship I've built with my mentor have helped me become more confident in my own capabilities and more certain of my career goals. This experience was an opportunity to see how far I've come and to be excited for where I will go." 
— student participant

"I am proud of the connections I made during this internship. I really stepped out of my comfort zone to talk to other team members that weren't directly involved in my work to get their opinion. It made my writing and projects that much stronger." 
student participant

"I haven't really had the chance to be a mentor before, and I want to do more of it now! I loved working with the Wellesley student we selected, and she did such a fabulous job that we've engaged her to continue the project during the rest of this year."  
alum supervisor

Design a Project

Hive Internship Projects are designed as short-term, virtual internship experiences that can be completed by first- and second-year Wellesley students. The SHIPs program allows students to gain professional experience by working on a real-world project, while your company or organization benefits from student support.

Project Content

SHIPs should consist of work that complements, rather than replaces, responsibilities typically completed by paid staff while providing significant educational benefits to the student. Educational benefits might include building or refining skills, gaining industry insights or project focus, and practicing professional competencies such as teamwork and communication.

Projects should align reasonably with the skills of early college students and have a concrete goal that can be completed in the set timeframe. 

In addition to the completion of a professional task, SHIPs are learning opportunities for students, supported through guided mentorship. Projects should be designed to ensure adequate time for mentorship to take place. Career Education has a resource to help navigate how to both supervise and support a student’s professional development through SHIPs opportunities.

Project Schedule

Projects should consist of 60 – 80 hours of work completed virtually between the dates of June 1 to July 31, 2024. The specific schedule for the student’s work within that time can be determined according to what works best for the project sponsor, the student, and the nature of the project (e.g., 20 hours/week for three weeks, 10 hours/week for six weeks).

The total number of required hours should be fulfilled through work that contributes to the student’s educational benefit. In addition to time spent working on the assigned project, some of the hours should be dedicated to activities like mentorship conversations, informational interviews with other members of staff, and shadowing colleagues in meetings or on projects. Hive Internship Projects are educational experiences for students, and these types of activities will help them to practice networking, learn about the industry, and develop general professional competencies.

Project Compensation

Career Education strongly encourages project sponsors to compensate students for their SHIPs based on internal policies, practices, and HR guidelines and project sponsors should include compensation details when listing their projects. The recommended minimum rate is $16/hour or $1,000 total for a 60-80 hour project. Compensation arrangements will be handled directly between the project sponsor and the student following the applicant selection process. Wellesley College Career Education can provide funding for Summer 2024 SHIPs projects that would otherwise be unfunded.

Students are eligible to receive 0.5 nonacademic credit on their transcript upon successfully completing a HIP.

Tips for Writing a Short Internship Project Description

Short Internship Project descriptions should be as detailed as possible, so students fully understand the scope of work, outcomes expected upon completion, and how the project fits into the larger workflow and mission of your organization. Project descriptions should include the following information:

  • A brief summary of your company or organization, including details about its mission and core values.

  • An overview of project responsibilities, tasks, and projected end goals.

  • Desired skills or knowledge students will need to complete the project. Be sure to highlight particular technical or computer proficiencies.

  • The anticipated student learning outcomes upon completion of the project, articulating the skills and knowledge that a student would gain from the experience.

  • Students will submit a resume and responses to the following questions with their applications: Why are you interested in this project and what do you hope to learn? What skills and strengths could you bring to this work? 

Below you will find two examples of effective Short Internship Project descriptions as a guide:

Organization A, located in Peru, is an organization that designs low-cost air filtration units for schools. Air pollution is an increasingly pertinent issue around the globe and children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air pollution as they breathe more rapidly than adults. 

Along with installing filtration units we will also be holding educational sessions at Peruvian secondary schools aided by self-constructible air-filtration tool kits to expose students to climate focused engineering solutions. Through building activities and discussions about sustainability and air pollution we will teach students the importance of sustainable practices, dangers of indoor air-pollution and inspire future innovation on these issues. 

As our Website Development/Graphic Design Intern you’ll be helping us develop a website for this project. We’d like you to populate the website with content regarding our work and create accompanying graphics such as a logo. This will involve communicating with different teams to keep track of progress and developments so you can present them well on the website. We’re open to anyone interested in learning how to develop a website even if you don’t have past website design experience. We’d also support you throughout the content writing process. 

This is an ongoing project so you would also be welcome to continue working with us beyond this summer.

About the Company
Company B is a cybersecurity and managed IT organization equipping financial services with cyber protection and technology support. Specifically, across the alternative investment space, Company B has extensive experience building, maintaining, optimizing and securing IT infrastructure for the world's most prestigious hedge fund, private equity, and asset management firms. With more than 250 employees, our culture prioritizes timely communication to provide unrivaled service across all of our solutions including managed detection and response, cybersecurity programs, virtual CISO (vCISO) support, monitoring, and disaster prevention and recovery. Company B is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in San Francisco, CA., Ann Arbor, MI., Mumbai, India, and London, England. 

Internship Project Overview
Develop a strategy and plan for an internship, apprenticeship, and college graduate program for Agio so they can build a sustainable pipeline of future talent and increase their efforts around diversity and inclusion. 

  • 4 week internship opportunity during the month of January (40 hours per week)
  • Report to the Chief People Officer (Wellesley College alum) and be a part of the HR team
     

Desired Outcomes

  • Increase diversity of the Company B talent pool
  • Improve quality of talent in a cost effective manner
  • Build a sustainable pipeline of future talent
  • Increase engagement, performance, and retention of the Company B team
     

Key Activities and Deliverables

  • Interview business leaders to create target candidate profiles for the program (akin to a “job description” / who we are looking for)
  • Develop employer branding strategy and materials in partnership with marketing
  • Conduct research to identify what our target population values in terms of benefits, opportunities, etc. (e.g., should we offer student loan contributions v. 401k?)
  • Estimate cost of rolling out the program
  • Research schools we should target to match our needs 
  • Identify training requirements and development / mentorship opportunities for the program
  • Build a project plan to implement the new program

Tips for Virtual Supervision

Providing Virtual Mentorship

Supervising a student remotely comes with some unique challenges and Career Education has designed a resource to help you create a successful and impactful virtual experience.

watering can

Contacts

For questions or support about the Short Internship Projects program, please contact Destiny Barletta, Director for Alum Connections and Rebecca Miller, Program Manager for Internships at SHIPs@wellesley.edu.