As a student from a low-income household, it was hard for me to decide to want to stay in Boston over the summer working an unpaid internship. Regardless, I decided to stay because as a rising Junior, internships are important tools to help you decide your future career goals, particularly as someone interested in clinical research.
I applied for this internship in the fall of my Sophomore semester and was so excited when I received an offer for the summer. I was going to be working at the top pediatric hospital in the nation, Boston Children’s Hospital. The excitement didn’t last very long when I learned the position was unpaid. How was I going to find a place to live in Boston that didn’t charge $600+ for rent? And if I did find a cheap place, what was I going to do for groceries? Taking the internship was looking less appealing as I calculated the impending costs of the summer. But the opportunity was too good to pass up so I even started considering taking out a loan or getting a second job.
Luckily my work-study job was looking for substitute teachers and offering a pretty good starting pay. I applied and as I waited for that response, I learned about the Tufts Internship Grant from the career center. This grant offered $3,500 ($2,500 in July and $1,000 in September) for students who have an unpaid internship during the summer and only provided a few of them for the year. Knowing that the job I applied for was still uncertain, I also applied for the Internship Grant. While I ultimately received both, I learned that fulfilling the requirements for the grant (350 hours) and working a part-time job would not be easy. I had to work the full work week as well as weekends in order to fulfill the grant requirements and follow through with my commitment for my job. Throughout this struggle, I had my advisor, staff, and my friends reach out to me for help which made my summer move a lot more smoothly than it could have.
It’s now August and after weeks of Sunday to Sunday, I’m tired but I survived. Even though I had to work harder to be able to stay on par with my peers, I made it. It’s situations like these that don’t have much visibility at Tufts but I can assure you they exist. Not everyone at Tufts is well-off and not everyone at Tufts can take a Summer off to do an internship but there are ways to make it through college and get a “college experience”.
Being a low-income student you may think there is no one out there going through what you are going through or that there is no one out there willing to help but there is. There are professors, staff, advisors, and friends that are willing to help and will help you make it through the next four years of your life you just have to reach out and let them help you.
P.S. Take a look at the Gallery below to see some images from my lab!