Information for Internship Sites
The Rural Internship Initiative provides eligible Golden LEAF Scholars with professional work experience related to their career field in a rural North Carolina community.
Internships are offered on a competitive basis. The Golden LEAF Foundation provides funding to pay interns $15/hour for their work. The internship takes place over a period of at least eight weeks, between June and August.
Internship Site Responsibilities
Internship sites that take on an intern agree to provide the intern with a meaningful project or role that aligns with the student’s college major and future career goals.
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.
Internship Site Benefits
Internship sites that accept a Golden LEAF intern receive added summer capacity and benefit from working with one of North Carolina’s brightest young people, at no cost to the company. Most importantly, internship sites play a role in developing the capacity of the next generation workforce and encouraging our state’s young people to live and work in rural North Carolina.
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 at a healthcare site, please contact Arlena Ratliff 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.
Please complete the form below to communicate your initial interest in hosting a Golden LEAF Scholar participating in the Rural Internship Initiative for summer 2024 (next summer). A more detailed form will be shared in the summer/early fall of this year for you to complete additional details about working at your site. This list will be shared with Golden LEAF Scholars beginning in fall 2023 as a resource to locate internship sites. Scholars are responsible for reaching out to sites from this list.
If you have any questions, please contact Arlena Ratliff, Golden LEAF Scholarship Program Manager at [email protected].