Hoping to work for a non-profit or public service organization this summer? Explore grant and funding opportunities available through OCS and CPIC! One of our student bloggers attended the recent Summer Grants & CPIC Summer Internships workshop so you could get the full scoop. Enjoy!

On the Monday after winter vacation, students gathered at the Office of Career Services to have their public service internships and fellowships questions answered. In this workshop, Tricia Hughes, Director of Summer Grants & Funding at OCS, and Travis Lovett, Director of the Center of Public Interest Careers, gave interested undergraduates insights on the different grant and funding information for summer public service opportunities. Although the advisers leading the meeting were (respectively) from OCS and CPIC, this workshop also encouraged students to apply for the dozens of programs offered by Phillips Brooks House Association and the Institute of Politics. 

Because of the volume of programs offered by these organizations, Ms. Hughes and Mr. Lovett spent less time discussing individual internship offerings and focused more broadly on the pros and cons of programs as a whole. For example, Mr. Lovett highlighted CPIC’s two largest summer fellowship programs awarded to undergraduates. The first is the Harvard Clubs Summer Community Service Fellowship Program, a collaborative grant with the Harvard Alumni Association that sponsors Harvard students to work at non-profit and public service organizations across the country. Alternatively, CPIC offers the Summer Public Service Work-Study Grant Program in collaboration with the Student Employment Office, which allows work-study eligible students to work at a non-profit organization with no financial obligation to the organization.

Ms. Hughes and Mr. Lovett emphasized the accessibility of their respective offices. Ms. Hughes reminded students of OCS’s drop-in hours, which include members of the Summer Grants & Funding Team every day from 1-4pm, and Mr. Lovett encouraged students to reach out to the staff at the CPIC’s office with any questions they might have about programs. Mr. Lovett also mentioned that the CPIC is always looking to expand their internship program offerings. “If there’s a particular organization that you’re interested in that’s not on our website, you should definitely get in contact with us,” he said.

In a change of pace from the more general nature of the workshop, Ms. Hughes presented a brand new program that OCS will be offering this year. The OCS Matching Summer Grants Fund will match summer grants for non-profit, small business and start up projects.

“The basic idea is that OCS will fund $1,500 towards [the student and their project] and ask that the organization matches $1,500,” she explained. “In this way, the student will come out with a $3,000 stipend.”

Ms. Hughes indicated the reason for the creation of this program is to start to introduce even more organizations into the grants and internship program that OCS offers. By matching the money the organization is willing to pay, this program allows smaller companies or organizations to participate in the internship offerings.

Above all, both advisers urged interested undergraduates to apply for the internship and fellowship programs, even if their internship is not definitively secured at the time of the application. They will need to produce that documentation eventually, but can use proof of communications (e.g., letters, emails, etc.) for the application purposes. Many deadlines are rapidly approaching!

For more information, please visit http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/publicservice_resources_ocs.htm.

— Julia Eger, ‘14