Breaking Barriers: How Elevate+ is Making Internships More Accessible
Elevate to Even+ • March 13, 2025
Internships serve as pivotal stepping stones for students transitioning from academic environments to professional careers. However, numerous barriers prevent many from accessing these essential opportunities. An insightful article from University Magazine, "Who's Not Applying for Internships?" delves into these challenges, highlighting factors such as heavy course loads, financial constraints, and limited access to professional networks.
Key Barriers to Internship Participation:
- Academic Pressures: Students often grapple with demanding course schedules, leaving little room for additional commitments like internships.
- Financial Constraints: The prevalence of unpaid internships poses a significant hurdle, especially for students who cannot afford to work without compensation.
- Limited Networks: Lacking connections in desired industries can make securing internships more challenging, particularly for first-generation college students or those from underrepresented backgrounds.
Elevate+: Bridging the Gap
Addressing these challenges head-on, organizations like Elevate+ are making strides to democratize access to internships. Elevate+ is committed to disrupting systemic inequality by providing underserved students with access to transformative, paid internship experiences.
How Elevate+ Mitigates Barriers:
- Paid Internships: By offering compensated positions, Elevate+ alleviates the financial burden, enabling students from all economic backgrounds to participate without monetary concerns.
- Flexibility: The majority of our internships are part-time, allowing students to continue in their regular part-time jobs and take additional classes over the summer.
- Skill Development: Interns engage in roles that focus on skill enhancement, ensuring they gain valuable experience applicable to their future careers. In addition to hands-on learning, they benefit from job readiness training, personal branding masterclasses, networking events, and ongoing professional development support throughout the summer.
- Mentorship: Each intern is paired with a host mentor, providing guidance and support throughout the internship, fostering personal and professional growth.
- Networking Opportunities: Elevate+ facilitates connections with successful professionals who share similar backgrounds, expanding interns' professional networks and opening doors to future opportunities.
By tackling these barriers, Elevate+ plays a crucial role in leveling the playing field, ensuring that all students, regardless of their socio-economic status, have the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience. Such initiatives not only benefit the individual participants but also contribute to a more diverse and equitable workforce.
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At Elevate+, we believe that every student deserves access to formative, paid work experiences that build confidence, spark ambition, and open doors. Vital to our success are the organizations that help us find the remarkable students we serve: our Talent Sourcing Partners. Going to Where the Students Are Elevate+ works with a growing network of high schools, colleges, and community-based programs across the country to identify talented students from low-income and marginalized communities. We go to where the students are—partnering with organizations that already have deep relationships with young people working hard to overcome systemic barriers. To be eligible for an Elevate+ internship, students must meet key criteria: they must come be marginalized and from a low-income background, and they must demonstrate achievement or potential in any aspect of their lives—whether academic, leadership, work ethic, or personal growth. We depend on our partners to connect us to students meeting our criteria. We then introduce the students to the Elevate+ community of host partners providing internship opportunities. Two of our original talent partners are KIPP NJ , a high-performing charter school network in Newark, and The PEP Program , a Summit-based enrichment initiative that helps students get into college. The Elevate+ network has grown to include over 25 partners across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas, and California. Partners we’ve added include Cleveland State University , the University of Colorado Denver , Fisk University , Drew University , and The Academy 365 , to name just a few. Two of our most recent additions are West Side High School in Newark and CT State Community College in Norwalk . These relationships are more than just talent pipelines for Elevate+—they are partnerships built on mutual trust and a shared commitment to student success. Two of our sourcing partners recently shared their perspectives on working with Elevate+. Here’s what they had to say about our collaboration: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A Perspective from Higher Edge New London, Connecticut Katie Hallisey, Executive Director
In her young life, Neema David has overcome a lot. In her childhood, her family escaped the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and lived in a refugee camp in Uganda before eventually immigrating to Cleveland, Ohio. Her small stature belies her fierce determination, evidenced by Neema learning English (on top of several other languages she already spoke), adjusting to a new culture, and supporting her family. As a student at Cleveland State University , Neema was also working as a caregiver and volunteering in her community. Her journey continued through the Elevate+ internship program, where she was matched with nonprofit Global Cleveland and received dedicated mentorship and hands-on experience . As a participant in the program, Neema immersed herself in all it offered, gaining invaluable insights and honing essential skills.
