The New College Foundation was recently awarded grants from the Isermann Family Foundation, the Cowles Charitable Trust and the Bishop Parker Foundation to support valuable, high-impact student internship opportunities.
The Isermann Family Foundation granted $25,000 to support New College’s Guaranteed Internship Program, which enables under-resourced students to take advantage of internship opportunities that may otherwise be out of reach.
The Cowles Charitable Trust granted the Foundation $1,500 to launch New College’s Internship Travel Grant Fund—a program that encourages students to pursue competitive internships regionally and nationally by helping to ease the cost of transportation to internship sites.
And the Bishop Parker Foundation awarded $12,500 to fund valuable internship opportunities with selected nonprofit organizations in Manatee County.
All three internship initiatives are part of a multi-pronged effort by New College’s Center for Career Engagement and Opportunity (CEO) to provide students with seamlessly integrated academic and professional development.
The CEO, consisting of a team of five staff members led by Executive Director Dwayne Peterson, empowers students to achieve post-graduation success through the Novo Career Advantage—a step-by-step career plan, with highly personalized career coaching that connects students with jobs, graduate schools, global scholarships and fellowships, and high-impact internships.
“We are grateful to the Isermann Foundation, the Bishop Parker Foundation and the Cowles Charitable Trust for supporting New College in the pursuit of our goal that 100 percent of our students complete a high-quality, academic internship prior to graduation,” Peterson said. “Our exceptional academic program equips students with the skills that we know employers are looking for, including problem solving, communication, collaboration and leadership. Completing an internship is exactly how students can demonstrate and apply these skills in a real-world professional environment. This makes the difference when it comes to early career success.”
Madeline Tympanick, a career coach and assistant director of the CEO, leads New College’s internship program.
“Our team is so excited to receive funding that will help us increase equity and enhance access to high-quality experiential learning opportunities for all our students,” she said. “We also see this as an opportunity to strengthen our connections with local partners and expand New College’s impact on the community.”
Tympanick added, “With these grants, we can fund community-driven internships, offer scholarships to incoming students so they can take advantage of unpaid internships, and also offer small stipends to students for related travel expenses. Relevant internship experience boosts students’ employment prospects since it serves as a top differentiating factor when employers evaluate new hires. Internships with regional employers can help keep top talent in our area.”
For decades, New College has excelled in and been nationally recognized for preparing students for success in graduate and professional programs. The percentage of New College graduates who go on to receive doctoral degrees places New College among the most prestigious public or private colleges and universities in the entire country.
More recently, New College has reinvigorated its commitment to students by making career preparation and 21st-century workforce readiness its highest strategic priority. A key element of the College’s strategic plan is to ensure access to internships and service-learning opportunities for all New College students, regardless of their financial resources, so that they can obtain employment immediately after graduation in a position that aligns with their skills, capabilities and longer-term career goals.
For more information about these grants or the New College Foundation, call 941-487-4800 or visit ncf.edu/alumni-and-friends/the-foundation. For more information on the CEO, call 941-487-5002 or visit ncf.edu/ceo.
Su Byron is the communications specialist for the New College Foundation.