Internship Site Information
The Rural Internship Initiative provides eligible Golden LEAF Scholars with professional work experience related to their career field in a rural North Carolina community.
The Golden LEAF Foundation provides funding to pay intern participants for up to 400 hours of work. In the first year, interns earn $16 per hour; in the second year, interns earn $17 per hour; and in the third year, interns earn $18 per hour. Internships take place over 8-12 weeks, between May and August.
Internship Site Responsibilities
Internship sites include, but are not limited to, businesses, non-profits, governmental entities, and/or companies in a qualifying county. Supervisors also commit to reporting on intern performance via bi-weekly surveys as well as mentoring the student on the role, professionalism, and rural community leadership. All participating internship sites will enter a three-party agreement with the Golden LEAF Foundation and a temporary employment agency, which will be the intern’s employer of record and will manage payroll and similar services.
Resources
The Golden LEAF Scholarship is more than tuition and room and board. It provides leadership development opportunities, exposes scholars to career experiences, and promises a lifetime connection to an extraordinary community of Golden LEAF Scholars across the state.
Healthcare Sites
While the Rural Internship Initiative aims to provide its participating scholars with valuable work experience, there are guidelines for activities scholars may engage in within a healthcare setting. Please review this document for a list of permissible healthcare activities. If you have questions about hosting a scholar in a healthcare setting, please contact us at [email protected].
Internship Site Interest Survey
Golden LEAF Scholars are responsible for identifying a site to complete their internship. To support this process, Golden LEAF is gathering information from entities interested in participating in this initiative.
The current Rural Internship Initiative program has commenced, and we’re excited for our Golden LEAF Scholars to embark on their experiential learning journeys. To ensure we can best support future cohorts and refine our processes, we’ve temporarily paused the interest survey. We anticipate the survey will reopen in late summer/early fall 2025, at which point we’ll once again be seeking valuable input from organizations interested in hosting our talented Scholars.
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].