Initiative 5 - Hostos External Internships Program

Hostos External Internships Program is intended to support internships to students from cutting-edge design companies or a well-respected hospital or a prestigious engineering firm.  These internships not only increase their chances of landing a job in their area of interest right out of college, but also to increase their starting salaries.  However, these opportunities are seldom available to community college students. Many low-income students cannot afford to take part in unpaid internships, regardless of how prestigious the firms offering them are. Both during the school year and during the summer, low-income students need to take jobs that pay a real income in order to survive.  HEIP is intended to be a corrective to this inequity. The companies will continue to run their programs the same way they do, but Hostos will assist our students in taking advantage of important networking and work experiences by providing students the funding that allows them to accept those important unpaid internships and at the same time meet their family obligations. We would support by means of a stipend  to compensate for loss of revenue during the internship.   Additionally, we would offer access to the Career Services closet and resume writing workshops for them to be prepared. We should also consider offering Metrocards to these students to ease commuting/travel needs.