Vols Remote Internship Program
CCI’s annual virtual internship program provides rising seniors opportunities to gain hands-on skills and experience with vetted non-profit organizations and small agencies. We encourage first-generation college students and/or students from low-income communities interested in working in a metropolitan area to apply.
What is the Vols Remote Internship Program?
As the world transitions to new ways of working post-pandemic, this remote internship is part of the solution, providing students critical opportunities they need to succeed in today’s challenging job market and offering organizations structure and support to new digital challenges.
The program provides students with the experience and opportunities they need to bolster their resumes, grow their professional networks, and hopefully land their dream job.
College of Communication and Information alumni mentors facilitate onboarding and social media trainin, reducing the time investment of hosting nonprofits compared to building a remote internship program completely in-house. Both student interns and agencies mutually benefit from this CCI-supported remote internship model.
The remote internship program focuses around a set of weekly projects that could be tailored or adapted by each nonprofit host as needed. The time commitments and tasks are tailored for each nonprofit’s needs, but we aim to provide each intern with a similar experience. For example, last year’s weekly schedule for each stakeholder looked like the following:
Nonprofits: ~two hours per week providing background, direction, and feedback on social media content and related projects carried out by the intern
Interns: ~eight to ten hours per week creating social media content and other related projects
Mentors: ~one hour per week providing advice on working remotely and digital communications best practices
Results 2020-2023
57
UT seniors
29
national and global nonprofits
16
alumni mentors
CCI’s Remote Internship Program Provides Pathway to Success
Trinity Worthy (‘21) had no job prospects on the horizon when she saw a notice about a remote internship program for College of Communication and Information students and recent graduates.
Worthy had just graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a degree from the School of Journalism and Media, and a minor in Africana studies. She had hoped to gain some practical work experience during school, but the coronavirus pandemic put a damper on her plans.
Apply now
Nonprofit and Agencies: Hosts from small-sized 501(c)(3) organizations, ideally members of a nonprofit’s communications team with time to provide weekly intern guidance and feedback and are based in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, or another metro-area in the United States. Apply here by April 1.
New in 2024: We are accepting applications from small, for-profit organizations committed to social impact.
Interns: College of Communication and Information rising seniors, ideally interested in social good. Students apply here by April 15.
Mentors: College of Communication and Information alumni, ideally working in digital marketing, communications, or a related field. Register here.
Supporters: The College of Communication and Information is committed to providing students with experiential learning opportunities and recognizes the barriers to entry for some of our students. With investments from donors like you, students can earn a wage for their work over the summer and support a non-profit in their mission to make our world a better place.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I help?
Volunteer to be an alumni mentor. If you are a UT alumnus currently working in digital media, marketing, communications, analytics, or UX/UI, we need alumni mentors to spend ~1/hour a week giving students feedback or advice.
Donate to the scholarship fund. We aim to raise $5,500-$10,000 that will go directly to the student interns to compensate them for their hard work. Visit giving.utk.edu/volsremoteinternship to donate to the Vols Remote Internship Scholarship.
Spread the word. If you are part of or know any organizations interested in this program, please share this page or email us at ccivolinternship@utk.edu.
What type of organization will participate?
Nonprofits: Small nonprofits are defined as having less than twenty employees.
Small organization or agency: doing social impact projects or in start-up mode providing communications, media, advertising services with five or fewer employees.
Located in a metropolitan area such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, etc.
Organizations that have at least one full-time communications team member available to provide one to two hours-worth of weekly training, guidance, and feedback each week for approximately eight to ten weeks. Project work will be in one of the four tracks: Digital Media, Analytics, UX/UI Design, and Communications.
What are the benefits for hosting nonprofits?
Training: Alumni mentors will conduct the initial social media best practice training and remote work onboarding, reducing the time investment of hosting nonprofits compared to building a remote internship program completely in-house.
Analytics: Part of the alumni-led training will focus on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the hosting nonprofit’s recent social media performance, which will provide valuable insights to inform the nonprofits’ future social media strategy.
Learning: As nonprofits return to new ways of working, this program will allow hosting nonprofits to experiment with this already tested online internship model (including an already drafted weekly schedule, intern activities, and evaluation for the program).
Networking: The nonprofit leaders will have the optional opportunity to network with other nonprofit hosts and alumni mentors to share learnings and best practices.
Contribution: COVID-19 has had a significant impact on both internship and full-time job opportunities, so your organization is helping develop new solutions to the long-term economic impact of the pandemic by participating in the program.
What are the benefits for the students?
Opportunities to bolster their resumes and grow their professional network. During this internship, they will:
Learn digital media best practices from alumni mentors working in communications
Develop a portfolio with examples of their work
Understand life in a non-profit or start-up environment
Practice working effectively and efficiently online
How will students be selected?
Students will be initially vetted by a committee of university-affiliated professionals for academic performance, need, creativity and critical thinking.
We are open to additional criteria requested by the hosting organizations and encourage a student screening interview with the hosting organization before final site assignments.
Will the students be paid?
The U.S. Department of Labor states unpaid internships are generally permissible for nonprofit charitable organizations. We believe rising seniors and recent grads will gain invaluable experience and bolster their resumes by working with one of our hosting nonprofit partners. The limited, flexible weekly hours also allow flexibility for students who need to pursue other paid opportunities to do so.
At the same time, we think it is important to find additional ways to compensate students for their hard work. We are working to crowdfund donations to provide student stipends for their hard work.
We want all students to be compensated at least $15/hour for ten hours/week for ten weeks for a minimum total of $1,500.
Therefore, we are looking for a mix of nonprofits who can pay students directly and those who are interested to apply for our new “Nonprofit Internship Grant” where students are paid via a donor-funded scholarship resulting in no cost to the hosting nonprofit eligible for the grant. Please complete this initial internship interest form to receive more details on the nonprofit host grant.
How can I get more information?
If you have any questions or wish to learn more, email us: ccivolinternship@utk.edu