Bridge Beyond Carolina

• Eligibility
• Internship Experience
• Available Internships
• Selection Criteria
• Award Amount
• How to Apply
• Deadline
• Application Guidelines
• Contact Us

The Bridge Beyond Carolina summer internship program was created by The Graduate School in 2024 to help UNC doctoral students build transferable skills and explore non-faculty career paths.

Eligibility

Carolina doctoral students may apply to one of the available internships listed below or apply for funding to support a student-identified internship.

You are eligible if:

• You are a full-time, doctoral student in a residential program administered through The Graduate School.
• You are enrolled full-time for Spring 2025 and will be enrolled full-time for Fall 2025.
• You will not hold a TA or RA position during the summer or take summer courses.
• The internship you propose does not fulfill a requirement of your graduate program.

Students awarded internships are required to:

• Attend an internship preparation session from 11am-2pm on Monday, May 12th at the Graduate Student Center. Lunch will be provided.
• Attend an internship reflection session from 11am-2pm on Friday August 15th at the Graduate Student Center. Lunch will be provided.
• Complete a post-internship evaluation.

Summer 2025 available internships

• Diagnostics Data Science internship at Ad Astra Diagnostics, Inc.
• Philanthropy Communications internship at Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• Economic Development Research internship at The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC)
• Health Communications internship at Galaxy Diagnostics, Inc.
• Community Engagement internship at Innovate Carolina
• Faculty and Graduate Student Professional Development Internship at The National Humanities Center
• Science and Technology Development Internship at North Carolina Biotechnology Center
• Social, Statistical and Environmental Sciences (SSES) Justice Practice Area Internship at RTI International
• Non-profit Management internship at Paws4ever
• Scholarly Publishing Acquisitions internship at UNC Press

Internship experience

The Bridge Beyond Carolina summer internship program was created by The Graduate School in 2024 to help UNC doctoral students build transferable skills and explore non-faculty career paths. The internship must be a minimum of 160 hours between mid-May and mid-August. Internships can begin as soon as May 13th, 2025 and must be completed by August 14th, 2025.

The program cannot be used to advance student research, though some overlap may be inevitable. Students must be able to clearly articulate how the internship relates to career goals and what they hope to gain from the internship experience, both intellectually and professionally. The Bridge Beyond Carolina program cannot be used to fulfill a graduate program internship requirement or supplement a similar required graduate program experience.

This program is designed to support internship opportunities that would otherwise be unpaid. Students should not receive concurrent funding for this opportunity from another source, though many of these opportunities are co-funded by the host organization. Additionally, the Bridge Beyond Carolina program should not replace other funding available to students.

Bridge Beyond Carolina program funding cannot be used to support internships where the primary work tasks involve advocating for a particular political party, candidate, or platform.

Selection criteria

• Funding is limited.
• Awardees are selected based on readiness to take advantage of a summer internship opportunity. Successful students will submit a well-articulated internship plan and definitive career exploration and learning goals.
• Students who have not previously had opportunities to explore non-faculty careers will be given priority.
• Additional considerations may include time to degree, availability of appropriate internship opportunities, and access to internships through the applicant's academic program.
• For applicants with a student-identified internship, additional selection criteria include the applicant's ability to demonstrate commitment from an internship mentor to deliver a high-quality summer internship experience that is well aligned with student career goals.

Award amount

The award is an $8,000 stipend split in two equal payments at the beginning of Summer I and Summer II.

Depending on funding, this award may change from year to year.

How to apply to one of the posted internships:

1. Prepare a Career Plan, CV or Resume, and a Description of Learning Goals. Be sure to follow the application guidelines below for each of these documents.
2. View Frequently Asked Questions about the online award application.
3. Submit your materials to The Graduate School Award Online Application.
4. Deadline for application submission: Friday, February 28th at 5:00 PM ET
5. Applicants will receive a decision by Monday, March 31st.
6. We will notify awardees in the middle of April.

How to apply with a student-identified internship:

1. Prepare a Career Plan, Curriculum Vitae or Resume, and a Description of Your Learning Goals. Be sure to follow the application guidelines below for each of these documents.
2. Applicants with a student-identified internship will also need to submit an Internship Plan. Be sure to follow the application guidelines below for each of these documents.
3. Internship mentors must submit the Letter of Commitment to bridgebeyond@unc.edu with "Internship Mentor's Letter of Commitment" as the subject line.
4. View Frequently Asked Questions about the online award application.
5. Submit your materials to The Graduate School Award Online Application.
6. Deadline for application submission: Friday, February 28th at 5:00 PM ET
7. Applicants will receive a decision by Monday, March 31st.

Deadline

Deadline for submission: Friday, February 28th at 5:00 PM ET

Application guidelines

We will not consider student applications that exceed word limits and/or do not fully address the prompts for each required document.

A complete application for a posted internship includes:

• Online Application
  • Career Plan
  • Learning Goals
  • Curriculum Vitae or Resume

A complete application for a student-identified internship includes:

• Online Application
  • Internship Plan
  • Career Plan
  • Learning Goals
  • Curriculum Vitae or Resume
  • Internship Mentor's Letter of Commitment

Career plan

Length: 250-350 words

• Describe your career goals including options you are considering, how your graduate degree aligns with those options, and how this internship will help you reach those goals.
• Outline a plan for achieving these career goals, including the skills and professional development, resource access, and professional relationship building necessary.

Learning goals

Length: 250-350 words

• Describe three desired learning outcomes for this internship, including any skills you hope to learn and how they relate to your career goals. Be sure to consider both technical and soft skills that you might learn and/or practice during the internship. Describe how the internship will provide an experience not otherwise available.
• Learning outcomes should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound). For example: "I want to learn French" is too big, vague, and hard to measure. "I will conjugate a new verb every day until I have it completely memorized" is a SMART goal because you can determine whether you have succeeded, and it contributes to the overarching goal of learning French.

Curriculum Vitae or resume

Length: no limit

• Include recent professional activities, awards, honors, and courses you have taught.
• Other sources of funding awarded or pending

Internship Plan
*For student-identified internships ONLY

Length: 400-500 words

The plan should include:

• The nature of the work to be completed by the student during the internship including anticipated deliverables, expected outcomes, mentor/supervisor oversight, and how the internship aligns with student career goals
• A description of how this internship would not duplicate previous experiences.

Internship mentor's letter of commitment
*For student-identified internships ONLY

Student-identified internship mentors should submit the Letter of Commitment to bridgebeyond@unc.edu with "Internship Mentor's Letter of Commitment" as the subject line.

Instructions for mentors:

Each letter of commitment should be no more than 4,000 characters (spaces included), which is approximately 600 words or one single-spaced page.

Address the letter of recommendation "To the Bridge Beyond Carolina Committee."

Include:

• A statement of support confirming that the sponsoring organization is in full support of the student internship proposal.
• A description of how the student-mentor relationship will be developed and maintained over the course of the program, including a plan of supervision as appropriate.
• An assessment of the value of the proposed plan as a learning experience for the student and contribution of the mission of the organization.
• A description of possible deliverables and general time commitment expected.
• A description of how the student's work will be evaluated.
• A confirmation that to the best of the mentor's knowledge, no other funding is available for this internship opportunity.
• A confirmation that the Bridge Beyond Carolina Host Evaluation form will be completed no later than Friday, August 22nd of the same year.

Contact us

bridgebeyond@unc.edu