Uncertainties surrounding federal funding can negatively impact or reduce student internship opportunities on campus. One Murray State student recounts their experience.
Samantha Rodgers, social work major with a minor in psychology, applied and was accepted for a paid internship position in the fall semester with TRiO Student Support Services.
The on-campus, federally-funded program offers resources to students who are either first-generation students, low-income or those with disabilities.
Rodgers said the internship would have served as the field practicum for their degree and a stepping stone in their career.
“I was excited about it,” Rodgers said. “It sounded exactly like the sort of area I wanted to be working in,” Rodgers said. “To my understanding it was essentially going to be directing students to resources that could help them – scholarship opportunities, tutoring and various events TRiO holds throughout the school year to help students learn life skills they may not have had an opportunity to.”
Rodgers received an email mere days later that said the position was no longer available. The email said “due to uncertainties around funding, (TRiO) won’t be able to take an intern for the fall semester.”
In the search for a new internship, Rodgers said many other intern opportunities were facing the same problem.
“I found out at least a couple of places that normally do social work internships on campus – including TRiO and the ‘Oakley Resource Center’/’Oakley Student Lounge’ (formerly the Women’s Center and the Pride Center) – are unable to next semester due to various uncertainties about funding and both state and federal legislation impacting their funding and causing concerns about how well they’ll be functioning even by the end of next semester,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers was able to secure an off-campus intern position, but said there is concern about what these issues with funding and recent legislation could mean for future opportunities.
“My main concern is what all this uncertainty around funding – and our government’s priorities regarding education – might mean for secondary education as a whole, in our state and in our country, in the near future,” Rodgers said.
The TRiO Student Support Services provided a statement on the state of the program’s funding and says this period of uncertainty is typical.
“Student Support Services is funded on a five-year grant cycle from the Department of Education, as the majority of TRiO programs are,” TRiO Vice President of Student Affairs Melissa Cooper said. “We have a period of uncertainty as we wait to learn if our grant proposal will be funded for another five years. This is typical and has been the pattern for decades.”
