Community Fellows Internships: A Cure for the Summertime Blues

By James Forkan

Lauren Garritano, with campers at the Sweetbriar Nature Center

Paid summer internships are among the opportunities available to students at Adelphi—these through the Community Fellows Program. This summer, Adelphi’s Community Fellows Program (CFP) is again offering these internships to 60 undergraduates in any major. The application deadline for Summer 2013 was March 1. 

The CFP summer internships tripled to 60 in 2012 from 20 in 2010. Of those participating in the 2012 program, 21 were transfer students, said Jonathan Ivanoff, associate director of internships at the Center for Career Development. He estimates that approximately one-third of the interns taking part each year since 2010 have been transfer students. 

Last year, the program placed interns in 37 nonprofit organizations throughout the New York City and Long Island region. That’s up from 27 organizations in 2011 and 18 in 2010. 

Dilma Palma, with campers at the Garden City Bird Sanctuary

Accepted students will be placed with a nonprofit for a credit-bearing summer internship that requires a minimum of 30 hours per week across 10 weeks from June to August. 

“When I came to Adelphi, I didn’t wait for the Community Fellows Program to find me. I made an effort to actively search for these opportunities on the Adelphi website,” said Michael Irons, Jr., a senior communications major. “At my previous school, opportunities like this were not as readily accessible as they are at Adelphi.” 

His stint as a video production intern at New York Metro InfraGard, he added, “truly enhanced my capabilities and provided a strong foundation that will help to launch my career.” 

Michael offered some tips to incoming transfers: “Go on the Adelphi website and also read your emails. Adelphi has so much invested in its students. Half of the opportunities that I took advantage of were posted on eCampus and sent to me in an email.” 

Dilma Palma, who transferred from New York Institute of Technology to major in business management at Adelphi, first found out about CFP as a junior last year. During her CFP internship at the Garden City Bird Sanctuary/Tanner’s Pond Environmental Center, she said, “I learned how to communicate more effectively, be better organized and more responsible. I also built better teamwork skills.” She urged incoming transfers to “make the most of opportunities” like CFP that can prepare them for their future. 

Lauren Garritano, a senior marketing major who transferred from Suffolk County Community College, learned about CFP via Adelphi emails and applied early in the Spring 2012 semester. She took advantage of leadership opportunities at Sweetbriar Nature Center, where she interned as a camp counselor and found the experience “enjoyable.” Intent on pursuing an M.B.A. in sports management at Adelphi, she said that nonprofit was “not a career choice I would like to follow.”