Internship offers have begun rolling out and for those who either haven’t landed an offer or haven’t started applying, look no further because Bucknell still has plenty of opportunities available for the upcoming summer.
Bucknell has many opportunities for students to gain valuable work experience before graduation. There are internships and research positions available for a semester, the entire academic year and even the summer season. From working at the Campus Theatre to conducting environmental research and even working with non-profit governmental agencies, Bucknell has plenty to offer should you choose to stay in Lewisburg this summer.
For those interested in non-profit and public service sectors, the Bucknell Public Interest Program Internship, or BPIP, works closely with the Law and Government & Public Interest Career Communities and supports programming that gives students opportunities to learn about these sectors with events offered throughout the academic year and into the summer.
It also provides financial support for first-year students, sophomores and juniors who are enrolled as full-time students and not on a leave of absence, who have secured a full-time, unpaid summer internship within the nonprofit and public service sector for an award amount of $4,500.
Similarly, the Shepherd Poverty Internship Program provides undergraduate students from all majors with a community-focused learning experience through an eight-week Summer Internship Program where cohorts of interns live together and work full-time with community partners engaged in anti-poverty work. This experience is offered in conjunction with the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), where students work with placements available across various urban and rural locations and sectors in the country. Those interested are encouraged to visit the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty website or reach out to SHECP Internship Director Sarah Farbo at [email protected] to learn more.
There are also several research opportunities available at Bucknell that will pay you to learn this summer. The Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation Summer Environmental Fellowship, more commonly known as the McKenna Summer Environmental Fellowship, is a University-wide program that supports students who conduct environmental research during the summer. According to current University policy, this fellowship supports about eight to eleven students with housing and $600 per week of summer pay in 2025. Successful applicants are also eligible to receive up to $500 of additional funding for materials and services associated with the projects. Upon completion of their projects, fellows are expected to complete a brief report for the faculty committee and the McKenna Foundation. Fellows are also expected to present their results at the Kalman Student Research Symposium on campus in the spring following the summer research. Interested students should contact Professor Ellen Herman at [email protected] to learn more.
The beauty of interdisciplinary work at Bucknell is that if you’re like me and not interested in conducting STEM-based research, there are plenty of other projects based in the arts and social sciences also available. Undergraduate students who haven’t conducted research before are eligible to apply for the Emerging Scholars Summer Research, Scholarship & Creativity Program. This program allows students to pursue exploratory, conceptual and applied research, scholarship or creative projects by connecting them with a faculty mentor or mentors. Emerging Scholars will receive a stipend of $500/week for up to 10 weeks of summer research to cover living expenses as well as on-campus housing for the duration of their project. Over the course of the summer, scholars will also participate in weekly scholarly and professional development workshops that will meet weekly throughout June and July.
For those with more experience, the Program for Undergraduate Research, PUR, provides awards to students to conduct research, engage in other scholarly work or undertake creative projects with faculty mentors during the summer. As with Emerging Scholars, students will receive a stipend as well as on-campus housing for the duration of their full-time scholarly project. Academic credit is not offered for the PUR.
Whether you want to work in the legal field, discover more effective means of sustainability or even write a film script, the possibilities are endless with the internships and research offered at Bucknell. As a previous Emerging Scholar and PUR award recipient, both programs have helped me delve deeper into my passions and gain valuable skills for other work opportunities.
I also encourage you to look into opportunities available at Bucknell during the academic year. Some of these include, but are not limited to, the West Branch Internship, which I will be interning with this spring, the Campus Theatre Internship, the Cynthia Fell Internship at the Bucknell University Press and the renowned Undergraduate Executive Intern Program. These opportunities are more than building experience, but amazing ways to experiment and discover the career that’s right for you.
