Click here to submit an internship online.
Click here to download a mailable PDF.

Internship opportunities are screened by the EDA. Once approved, they will be viewable online

 

To date, over 1,000 University of Minnesota, Crookston students have been placed in professional practice internships. The EDA Center is initiating funding for 5 internships to be competitively granted to RDC's and other economic development agencies in Minnesota.

The EDA Center begins its second year of operation with a program to help with regional development and introduce college students to the many and varied career opportunities in development agencies. We continually seek to expand the breadth of the EDA Center. If you are an established Regional Development Commission, a county or municipal Economic Development Authority, or a Tribal organization in Minnesota that currently works in economic development, we encourage you to consider participating in this unique opportunity. By partnering with the EDA Internship Program, we hope to cooperatively provide students with a professional or semi-professional economic development experience while also working to strengthen University-Community ties.

We are delighted at the prospect of working with you to develop and design internships that will meet the needs of both your organization and our student interns. Please review the information below and complete the "Internship Sponsor Application and Intern Request Form." We will review your application and request and get back in touch with you as soon as possible.

If you have questions about becoming an EDA internship sponsor or need assistance in developing your internship description, please contact Jack Geller at gelle045@umn.edu

The EDA Internship Program is an experiential learning/service learning activity. The EDA Internship has two parts: a professional practice internship and an academic seminar. University interns serve at little or no monetary cost to sponsoring organizations. Interns are available for up to 40 hours per week for 10 weeks during the summer (mid-May to mid-August). Students apply to the EDA internship during the spring semester of their junior or senior year.

• Extend staff and increase service delivery to clients and the community.
• Tackle long-term projects needing additional time or resources.
• Bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to the organization.
• Provide sponsor with an opportunity to sharpen and refine his or her own management and coaching skills.
• Actively participate in a defined community-based project and create stronger ties between the University of Minnesota, Crookston and the community by facilitating the exchange of ideas and developing solutions to common problems.
• Continually seek to learn skills and develop themselves as both individuals and as professional employees.
• Provide approximately 400 hours (depending upon the program option) of professional service to the organizational sponsor.

• Provide an on-site professional practice internship experience.
• Help interns integrate theory with practice in a "real world" professional setting.
• Expose interns to complex and multi-faceted functions of community organizations.
• Teach interns basic organizational skills associated with economic development.
• Promote interns' social, educational, and personal growth while expanding their intellectual horizons.
• Assist interns in clarifying their career goals and decisions.
• Serve as supervisor, mentor and role model for an aspiring young professional.
• Help interns gain confidence and become competitive in the job market following graduation.
• Attend at least one EDA Center Sponsors' meeting each year.
• Evaluate intern's performance twice during the internship.
• Provide housing for 10 weeks or $1,000 toward such expenses for the intern.

• Connect internship sponsors with student applicants.
• Provide up to a $4,000 stipend to the intern.
• Help match student and internship sponsors interests to encourage successful placement.