Thanks to our loyal alumni, parents, and other close friends of the college, we have succeeded in the second year of our now-annual Davidson Internship Challenge. The challenge is based on the model of an annual fund, where we call on members of the Davidson community to provide various levels of support to connect students with internship experiences.
This year, we posted 139 internships as part of the program, an increase of 14 percent from last year. As of early June, we have received word of 97 internships that Davidson students have actually secured through the program, an increase of 28 percent from last year. We expect this number to tick up slightly through the end of June as we continue to get word of internship placements. We are also pleased to report an increase in the number of paid internships contributed as part of the challenge – over 60% of the total.
Our many participants assisted us in various ways – some by serving as a resource for students applying for the internship program at an organization, some by facilitating Davidson applications through an intern selection process at an organization, and others by creating or helping to arrange an internship specifically for a Davidson student.
While the full list of participants can be found on our website, we’d like especially to thank those at the organizations that have hired Davidson students for two years in a row, including Susie Films, Salzburg Global Seminar, Deloitte, Bain, Merrill Lynch, Red Ventures, Talwar Gallery, AES Corporation, Afara Global, Tresata and Girl Power 2 Cure. We’re also excited to have students interning at many organizations where we have first-time Internship Challenge participants, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Civil Society Action Network, Addison Whitney, Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network, the Mountain Area Health Education Center, Oscar De La Renta, Jones Lang LaSalle, and the Law Offices of Laura Leibfreid.
This year’s participants included well over 100 alumni, 17 parents, and a few other friends of the college. By decade, the 2000-2009 alums participated in the greatest numbers, with 38 alumni from this decade participating. The 2010-12 alums were close behind, with 34 total alumni participating.
Class Years with the Most Internship Challenge Participants:
Class of 2011: 11 Participants
Class of 2009: 10 Participants
Class of 2010: 7 Participants
Class of 2012, Class of 2008, Class of 1997: 6 Participants
Class of 2007: 5 Participants
Class of 2006, Class of 2002, Class of 1993: 4 Participants
Class of 2003, Class of 1998, Class of 1996, Class of 1991, Class of 1987, Class of 1978: 3 Participants
We’ll be requesting some photos and interviews from students who complete internships that were a part of this year’s challenge, so look for these this fall here on our blog!
Have an internship lead for next year’s Challenge in mind? Contact Ashley Neff, Assistant Director for Internships, at asneff@davidson.edu.
*Post updated June 13, 2013