Internships are no longer about free labor. Here’s how getting paid helped four Philly interns start career building.

Aeniah Godwin, a rising senior at Philadelphia Performing Arts charter school, was planning to work a summer job this year, maybe something in retail. When they learned about the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s collaboration with the Bloomberg Arts Internship program, where interns get paid for their experience, Godwin thought, “I should definitely try to do this.”

They landed at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, making $15 per hour to help with tours and workshops Tuesday through Thursday. They’re also paid for professional development sessions on Mondays and cultural immersion experiences on Fridays.

It “really stood out to me the fact that it was educational as well as a chance to make some money,” Godwin said. They’re working alongside Saoni Lorenzo, a rising senior at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School.

Godwin said they both bring a “younger audience perspective” to the museum, and Lorenzo said they bring “technical literacy” and a morale boost. Getting paid underscores the worth of their work. “I can tell the people like us and that they find us useful,” Lorenzo said.

A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that 62% of 2023 graduating seniors surveyed did at least one internship, and 59% of those internships were paid. The share of paid internships has increased in recent years, NACE’s study found, but those experiences are disproportionately more often going to students who are white and male.

NACE has advocated for making all internships paid as a step in eliminating those disparities.

“There have been instances where unpaid internship opportunities have actually been a luxury that some students can ill afford,” Patricia Wilson Aden, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance said. Paying interns “ensures that all students from all backgrounds can participate.”

Unpaid internships are not illegal, though there are some limitations in federal labor law applying to for-profit entities. In order to not pay an intern, the company must be able to show that the interns benefit more from the experience than the company does.

But interns are increasingly seeking both meaningful experience and pay when deciding where to work for the summer, and programs focused on equity are providing both.

Chris Chaplin, director of career pathways for Heights Philadelphia, an organization that connects Black, brown, and first-generation students with career and educational opportunities, said internships in the past were seen as an exposure opportunity for students. They would go on coffee runs or complete other simple tasks and rarely did any meaningful work in exchange for an inside look at how a company operates.

But that has changed, said Chaplin. Interns more frequently complete projects that are useful to the company, and some even do client-facing work, like compiling reports or attending client meetings.

“They deserve to be compensated for their contribution to the company’s initiatives,” Chaplin said. “It creates an understanding that you can be compensated for the skills that you bring to the table.”

Jennifer Johnson Kebea, president of Campus Philly, has noticed more employers offering paid internships to students, and the majority of Campus Philly’s partners offered at least $15 per hour to summer interns this year, she said. Internships and job placement are a core focus of Campus Philly, which works to keep people who were educated in the Philadelphia region from leaving after graduation.

“We’ve seen companies come forward and recognize that strong internships have the opportunity to help them identify talent,” Kebea said. “Companies who pay [interns] are more likely to attract a diverse and competitive talent pool,” Kebea said.

Christian Marsan, a rising senior finance major at Temple University, said getting paid for an internship is “an incentive to want to work harder.”

Marsan is making $25 per hour in an eight-week internship at investment firm Hirtle Callaghan through Heights Philadelphia’s Inveniam Equity Internship Program. Inveniam requires participating employers to pay interns at least $5,000 for six to eight weeks, as well as a transportation and wardrobe stipend.

“If this was not a paid internship, I would value the experience I’m getting, but knowing me, just because I’m a finance major, I’d be missing some part,” Marsan said, though he noted that most of the finance internships he has come across were paid.

Marsan said the internship has improved his skills in Microsoft Excel, active listening, and engaging with professionals. He’s also stepped up his professional wardrobe, he said.

Dawud Alexander, a rising junior at Temple University, is making $28.50 per hour this summer working with PNC Bank’s Asset Management Group through the Inveniam program. His work includes researching companies and creating economic reports.

“There’s a two-way street as to the value being gained,” Alexander said. “Having a paid internship really is a testament to that company’s commitment to that intern.”

Godwin and Lorenzo said it’s hard to find paid internships in the arts. Getting one is not only a financial plus, but it’s a also boon to their resumes, they both said.

“With the rarity of paid internships, there’s a kind of prestige to having one,” Lorenzo said.

Thinking back on their internship experience, Godwin said they learned the most from shadowing tours and workshops. They’ve watched staff members collaborate and saw the management skills they needed.

Fellow Fabric Museum intern Lorenzo, who previously worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the school year through the work-study program at Cristo Rey, said getting an inside look at multiple cultural organizations has opened their mind to new career possibilities.

“Being exposed to so many resources makes you realize that [starting a career] not as scary as it was made out to be,” Lorenzo said.

The other interns expressed similar feelings of relief, saying their internship experiences dissolved some of the intimidation they had felt before.

“When I was in high school I knew I wanted to be in corporate America, … but I didn’t know if I would fit in,” Marsan said. “People telling me, ‘You belong here,’ it’s very beneficial for young people to hear that.”