- “Are you passionate about making a difference in the world? Look no further!” reads a public job posting on LinkedIn.
The mission is compelling. The language is urgent.
The job description continues. Here comes the catch.
“This is an unpaid internship.”
Professional work experience matters to students, but so does the cost of unpaid internships—especially when rent and tuition are due.
Nationally, the average intern earns just over $23 an hour, according to data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2026 Guide to Compensation for Interns and Co-ops. For nonprofit and grassroots organizations operating on lean budgets, meeting that figure can be challenging, so interns go unpaid. For humanities students drawn to service and community impact, that reality can turn opportunity into a barrier—especially for those without a financial safety net.
Lidia Marquez, a double major in Spanish and operations management and information systems, took fewer shifts from her two paid jobs for time at an unpaid internship with Northern Public Radio’s WNIJ Hola. She lives at home and receives financial aid to cover tuition, but she still has monthly expenses, including medical bills.
“I had to adjust my payment plans and be extremely careful with my spending to ensure I could cover essential expenses like my phone bill,” Marquez said. “I went from working 18 to 25 hours a week to only 10 to 14 hours to balance this internship with five classes and extracurriculars.”
For students like Marquez, access to meaningful opportunities often hinges on what’s manageable.
Now, with a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities, NIU is working to remove financial barriers to internships. The grant will support a new program to dramatically expand paid, credit-bearing experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students in the humanities.
Amanda Durik, Ph.D., interim dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a professor in the Department of Psychology, estimates that the grant will support up to 40 interns each year. Through structured internships aligned with their coursework, the program will give humanities students the freedom to choose opportunities based on impact, relevance and professional growth.
“These additional internship opportunities will help students develop and apply innovative ideas that can positively impact communities and broader populations,” NIU President Lisa C. Freeman said. “Support from the Mellon Foundation grant will provide the critical resources necessary for these students to fully commit to and advance this important work.”
Anna Wittenkeller, an English major with a minor in communication studies, hopes to pursue a career in publishing. She serves as an unpaid editorial intern at Bridge Arts, a small independent arts journal that amplifies the work of underrepresented artists across Chicagoland.
Like Marquez, Wittenkeller reduced her paid hours at a restaurant to make the opportunity possible—a trade-off she made to gain experience in her desired field. She works roughly 10 unpaid hours and nearly 15 paid hours while juggling classwork. This schedule leaves no time to explore student organizations or campus activities.
Wittenkeller said that compensation would have affected the range of opportunities she felt able to pursue.
“I work remotely,” she said. “Gas is expensive. If a grant were available to help pay me while commuting to the city or wherever I needed to go for an in-person internship, I would have looked harder for those and worried less about the cost of transportation. I also would have considered an internship that spanned over the fall and spring semesters to gain more experience.”
By improving access to in-person roles, paid internships can also jump-start a student’s professional trajectory.
According to the NACE 2025 Internship and Co-Op Report, in-person internship programs report job offer rates nearly 16 percentage points higher than those of hybrid programs, underscoring the professional advantage of on-site experiences.
Eryn Lent, a transfer student from Elgin Community College majoring in English, works as a copy editor and social media intern at WNIJ. Her role is hybrid, and the time she spends on-site has strengthened her relationships with her supervisor and mentors, who provide real-time feedback and professional guidance that extend beyond her assigned tasks.
“They have been amazing to work with and genuinely want to see me succeed,” Lent said. “Being on-site has helped me build professional relationships and confidence, making my experience at WNIJ truly meaningful.”
Experiences like Lent’s illustrate the formative moments internships can provide. Whether bridging classroom theory and professional practice, expanding professional networks or gaining clarity about what they want in a career, students can emerge from a single internship with a new perspective.
But internships don’t just fill résumés or clarify futures; they also strengthen organizations and benefit the communities they serve.
Cynthia Grijalba-Duran, a Spanish major with a minor in deaf studies who works as a translator in a hybrid role at Rockford-based cultural organization La Onda, has experienced that connection firsthand. Her work supports language accessibility across the city, giving her a sense of pride and purpose rooted in tangible community impact.
“A lot of local businesses have both English and Spanish advertising and writing in their windows,” Grijalba-Duran said. “My work on the translation team is not only relevant for providing information to the community, but also a necessary connection to language accessibility for Rockford residents.”
Grijalba-Duran believes internships are especially vital for humanities students, whose skills are often closely tied to social connection, storytelling and community engagement.
“There are very passionate NIU students in our halls waiting for an opportunity to share and implement their own innovative ideas to benefit entire communities and populations,” Grijalba-Duran said. “The Mellon Foundation grant could give them the extra support needed to fully dedicate themselves to that work.”
President Freeman echoed that broader mission, noting that the new internship program will “deepen our students’ understanding of critical societal issues, including racial and economic inequality, environmental justice, food security and cultural preservation.”
In addition to directly supporting students, the grant will fund a dedicated internship coordinator position—an essential component for sustaining and scaling the program.
“A dedicated internship coordinator will connect students with meaningful placements and manage the program from start to finish,” Durik said, noting that NIU is well positioned to expand both new and existing opportunities through its long-standing partnerships.
Spanning from December 2025 through November 2030, the grant includes endowment support for long-term sustainability. An additional $1 million from the Mellon Foundation will be unlocked once NIU secures $1 million in matching donor support, bringing the Mellon Foundation’s total investment at NIU to $2.5 million.
Together, the grant and matching funds lay the groundwork for a sustainable humanities internship program—keeping paid opportunities within reach for humanities students well into the future.
“Internships matter long after the experience itself,” said Freeman. “They give students meaningful work, valuable connections and the confidence to step into professional spaces—shaping not only where their careers begin, but how far they’re able to go.”
Gifts to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Endowment for the Humanities Internship Fund help unlock an additional $1 million in Mellon Foundation funding—expanding paid internship opportunities that connect students to meaningful careers.
Make your gift today.
Questions? Email CLASGiving@niu.edu