Become an Internship Partner

Community organizations, business leaders, government entities, schools, alumni and others have the opportunity to become an internship partner with two of our programs: Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS) and Princeton RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality). 

• PICS is an alumni-founded program with the Pace Center that provides Princeton undergraduates paid summer internships in nonprofit organizations.
• Princeton RISE matches partners and students to address racial justice and contribute to campus and community projects.

PICS Process

Working with PICS to hire interns allows you to focus on your organization’s mission while the Pace Center manages recruiting, advising, training, payment, mentoring, and logistics.

What PICS does:

• Helps internship partners design projects that will challenge and fully utilize the talents of interns
• Recruits a talented and diverse pool of candidates
• Conducts intensive advising with students prior to application to ensure your organization receives a highly qualified candidate pool
• Provides resumes and cover letters from applicants for your review
• Offers options for coordinating and scheduling interviews
• Manages the offer and acceptance process
• Provides interns with an intensive pre-internship professional development training
• Provides alumni mentors for interns 
• Connects interns with summer networking and professional development opportunities

What PICS internship partners do:

• Develop a job description with clearly defined projects and responsibilities that show how a PICS intern can make a meaningful contribution to your organization
• Offer PICS internships to all eligible undergraduates (first years, sophomores and juniors). Offer internship opportunities without restricting them to upper class students or to students who own cars. 
• Contribute toward an internship stipend
• Submit an application to serve as a PICS Internship Partner
• Agree to the terms of the PICS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 
• Review applications from students
• Make final decisions about hiring
• Offer mentorship and professional development to interns, for many of whom PICS will be their first professional experience

PICS Timeline

• August: PICS Internship Partner application opens
• October: PICS Internship Partner application closes
• Mid-November: PICS Internship Partners notified of application decision
• December 1: Deadline for PICS Internship Partners to confirm participation
• Early December: Student application opens
• Early January: Student application closes
• Mid January: PICS Internship Partners informed of applicants
• Late January: Tentative Interview Week
• Early February:  Final decisions from PICS Internship Partners due
• Mid February: Final decisions from students due (tentative)
• Late May: Internships may begin

PICS Funding

PICS attracts top-tier students in part because we ensure that all interns are compensated fairly for their work via a cost-of-living stipend. In summer 2024, interns received a stipend of $700 per week. 

Where able, PICS Internship Partners pay the internship stipend. However, the support of generous Princeton alumni donors allows us to fund internships at organizations whose budgets do not allow them to cover the entire cost of the stipend. We encourage all organizations whose missions are aligned with PICS to apply to host an intern, and we will accommodate as many organizations as our funding allows. If your organization cannot fully fund the cost of an internship, committing to contribute partial funding in whatever amount your budget allows is more likely to result in your acceptance as a PICS Internship Partner.

Every organization’s situation is different. Please feel free to contact PICS Program Director, Emily Sharples ([email protected]) with any questions or concerns about funding.

Apply to Host a PICS Intern

Organizations interested in partnering with PICS  to host a summer intern in the 2024-2025 cycle are invited to submit this PICS 2025 Internship Hosting Application. The portal closes on Friday, October 4, 2024. Thank you for your interest in PICS!

Princeton RISE Process

Service at Princeton is about responding to the needs of the world. Those needs have become more visible with the Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian lives lost to the pandemic, police violence and citizen vigilantism. Persistent, recent, and continuing acts of systemic racism are calling us to address inequalities and injustices and particularly anti-Blackness. Princeton RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality) is intended to foster students' enduring and sustained commitment to civic engagement. 

What Princeton RISE does:

• Pairs Princeton University students with a participating Princeton RISE partner organization
• Provides opportunities for students to listen with communities engaged in racial justice and anti-racist work and explore and advocate for racial justice broadly
• Helps students learn about societal inequities in areas including, but not limited to, health, criminal justice, the environment, tech, the arts and education
• Engages students in strategies to promote their own and their peers’ well-being and resilience
• Engages students in peer-led weekly conversations and activities with other RISE fellows
• Organizes peer-facilitated discussion cohorts for students to connect with peers throughout the eight week summer experience

What Princeton RISE partners do:

• Propose a RISE project by submitting an application to host a RISE intern
• Provide supervision and support for the RISE intern(s) they are matched with
• The commitment for RISE fellows is for a total of 40 hours/week: RISE internships with partners will be 35 hours/week; RISE programming that includes training, reflection and guided conversation with peers will be 5 hours/week at a time determined by the cohort in which your intern is placed 

Princeton RISE Timeline

• September RISE Internship Partner application opens (rolling deadline)
• Early October, Priority deadline for RISE Internship Partner application (application closes end of Oct)
• Early December, Student application opens
• January 8, Student application closes
• Mid-January, RISE Internship Partners informed of applicants
• Mid to late January, tentative Interview Week
• Early February, Final decisions from RISE Internship Partners due
• Mid to late February, Final decisions from students due (tentative)
• Late Beburary or early March, Round 2 student application window (tentative)
• For organizations who do not match with an intern during Round 1, we will open a second round of applications and interviews in March to provide an additional opportunity to review candidates.

Princeton RISE Funding

RISE fellows will receive a $700/week grant, mentorship from staff and peers, books, materials, training, reflection and guided conversation.

Apply to Host a RISE Intern

Here is the RISE Community Partner Application for 2025. Thank you for your interest in partnership and your ongoing commitment to racial justice.