Starting this summer, humanities students will have another alternative to working as camp counselors or taking a traditional unpaid summer internship at a large corporation.
With funding from both the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships and the College of Arts and Sciences, a total of 12 undergraduates will be given the opportunity to apply for the University's new summer research internships.
Students can choose from internship openings at a variety of local cultural hubs -- ranging from the Institute of Contemporary Art to the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology -- and receive stipends ranging from $3,000 to $3,500.
"I'm very excited about getting this off the ground," College Dean Rebecca Bushnell wrote in an e-mail interview.
"It offers a new way for students to think about research in the social sciences and the humanities, combining hands-on and practical experience with exposure to research methods and materials," added Bushnell, who was instrumental in developing the new program.
Selected students will also have the opportunity to meet together and with other researchers several times throughout the summer. According to Associate Director of Academic Affairs Eric Schneider, this aspect of the program is intended to promote a sense of camaraderie among researchers.
"There's really nothing analogous for humanities and social science students to the experience of working in a lab ... where an undergraduate is part of a team working on a project," he said. "We thought that having a summer institute would give people an opportunity to discuss each other's work and to make it so they won't be working in isolation."
CURF Director Art Casciato added that the internships are "a natural first step in a process that we hope helps students develop research interests."
"We're hoping that the people who take up these internships will be early in their University career, and we're hoping that the exposure ... will lead to possible research projects in the future," he said.
Since this is the first year that such an opportunity is being offered, Casciato said he is unsure of how many students may apply.
According to Casciato, applications will be evaluated by a group of faculty members, but final decisions will be left to the cultural centers.
When it comes to evaluating applicants for the positions, "a strong application is going to be a specific application," Casciato said.
He added that if the internship program is successful, he hopes to see it expand in the future, reaching out to the broader Philadelphia community.
"This is meant to be a kind of seed program from which a larger summer internship program will grow," he said.
Schneider agreed, adding that "we would like to expand the funding for it and then also expand the number of sites at which students could be hosted."
