“This entire experience was a blessing to our organization and we benefited greatly from having an intern from the Office of Religious Life work with us virtually! Our student intern was a fantastic fit for our organization!” - Rachel D’Addabbo, Catholic Charities of West Tennessee

For the past few years, the Office of Religious Life has sponsored 8-week Faith-Based Internships (FBI) for students to grow vocationally as they develop relationships with mentors, learn how to serve the communities they work with, and reflect on the meaning of their work.

Click here to apply to be a 2024 Faith-Based Internship Partner!

Our Process 

• Our internship program advertises to and recruits students from diverse traditions and backgrounds. Students don’t have to be religious to apply
• From this pool of applicants, we then refer selected students to the organizations we think would be most suitable for them and assist in scheduling interview calls
• Based on the interview calls, we ask both students and partners to confirm their interest in the internship partnership
• We organize a pre-internship orientation process for students to become familiar with the expectations and components of the program 
• Two weeks before the internship we send out forms and ask students to get in touch with their internship supervisors for an initial work expectations call 
• Throughout the internship we organize check-in calls for students to debrief their internship experience
• We encourage students to engage in deeper questions of meaning through a series of contemplative prompts that we discuss in group calls 
• Students are also given the option to participate in other Office of Religious Life programs throughout the summer, including the Oral History Project and Meditation with Santikaro 

Our Funding 

• The Office of Religious Life fully covers the cost of the internships. 
• Students are paid a stipend of $600 per week of internship ($4,800 for 8 weeks), which is expected to cover transportation, accommodations, food and basic living expenses 
• Students are paid the full amount prior to the internship

Becoming an Internship Partner 

The Partner Interest Form for Summer 2024 can be found here.

We expect that Faith-Based Internship partners will: 

• Offer the students clearly defined, meaningful work related to faith organizations/perspectives, which will be articulated in the Partner Interest Form, follow up conversations and the work expectations call 
• Communicate preferences for duration of internship, number of interns, and skills/requirements for interns 
• Provide a supervisor who will be able to assign the students 4-8 hours of work per day (for at least 8 weeks) and oversee the responsibilities of the student intern
• Review applications from students and confirm candidates
• Prepare an orientation for the student regarding organization policies, communications, staff introductions, work culture, office holidays, harassment and discrimination policies, and other pertinent information 
• Inform our office of any changes to intern supervision, work dates or material changes in position description 
• Offer mentorship and networking opportunities to the students (such as regular check-ins, virtual coffee chats, workshops etc.)