SUNY Potsdam Launches New Presidential Internship Program

Selective Paid Internships Available to North Country Businesses and Organizations, Thanks to New SUNY Potsdam Pilot Program

Potsdam, NY (10/30/2024) — SUNY Potsdam is pleased to announce the College's new Presidential Internship Program, a competitive paid internship program allowing students to gain professional experience while assisting select North Country employers.

Last year, Potsdam was one of 12 SUNY campuses invited to participate in a project led by Jobs for the Future, a not-for-profit organization that works to advance equitable economic benefits for all. The project aims to reduce the financial barriers students often face when completing unpaid internships and other applied learning experiences. Following on the project, the campus applied for and received $100,000 in Empire State Development funding to support stipends, tuition and other costs associated with a new Presidential Internship Program (PIP).

The PIP pilot program will launch in Summer 2025. High-achieving students will complete paid internships at select sites throughout the region, receiving academic credit, professional development opportunities and stipend support. Interns will be fully paid through the state funding, and there is no cost for approved internship sites to participate.

"The Presidential Internship Program (PIP) is an exciting initiative for the internships office at SUNY Potsdam, because it represents continued growth for our students' internship opportunities as they explore their disciplines and become career ready. The PIP will create a new level of competitive and immersive internships for a cohort of SUNY Potsdam students who are matched with local sites," said Internship Coordinator Max Grube. "In the spirit of President Suzanne Smith's charge to 'elevate engagement,' we believe the PIP will further develop internship collaborations between the university campus and our valued partnerships in the North Country community."

The Lougheed Center for Applied Learning is seeking North Country businesses and organizations to host interns through the new program. Sites will outline detailed internship descriptions, and students admitted to the PIP will select their top choices, guiding the matching process. Please note that sites may submit applications for multiple internship opportunities, depending on their needs. The application is available online.

During the experience, student interns will complete a minimum six-credit internship for a total of 240 hours in Summer 2025.

Students will work with SUNY Potsdam faculty members to develop academic learning outcomes related to the job description/site tasks. Site supervisors will evaluate students at the midway point and the end of the internship experience. Weekly professional development sessions will be offered to all student interns, supported by staff from the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning.

This new internship opportunity comes on top of other recent significant investments in applied learning support, thanks to the SUNY transformation fund. SUNY Potsdam was able to offer support through the incremental internship programming fund to help 30 students completing internships last summer. Thanks to the success of that program, the campus received additional funding to more than quadruple the capacity of that opportunity for Summer 2025. The Lougheed Center for Applied Learning also used a portion of these funds to create an internship stipend -- students can apply for this stipend each term to offset the costs of pursuing an internship.

In addition, SUNY Potsdam is currently participating in the Empire State Service Corps program, participating in paid public service opportunities spanning assignments in areas such as K-12 tutoring, SNAP and basic needs outreach, peer mental health, sustainability, anti-hate and anti-bias prevention, nonpartisan civic engagement and FAFSA completion.

Local internship sites with questions about any of these placement opportunities may reach out to Internship Coordinator Max Grube, at grubejm@potsdam.edu.

SUNY Potsdam's Lougheed Center for Applied Learning is the first integrated academic opportunity center of its kind in SUNY. Its formal mission is to provide coordinated experiential learning opportunities that broaden and integrate students' knowledge and skills, and to foster self-discovery, for engaged and life-long academic, personal and career success. To learn more, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/appliedlearning.