Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed Senate Bill 286 and House Bill 54 — identical bills that create a statewide internship coordinator role — June 11. The new role within Spanberger’s administration will strengthen and expand internship programs for Virginia college students across state government agencies.
Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) is the chief patron of SB 286, and Del. Rip Sullivan (D) is the chief patron of HB 54. In a June 12 press release by Spanberger, Aird said her career in public service began with an internship in state government.
“I know firsthand how transformative these opportunities can be for young people considering careers in public service,” Aird said in the statement. “This legislation creates a more intentional pathway for students and young professionals to gain meaningful experience in state government, develop professional skills, and see themselves in careers serving the Commonwealth.”
In the same press release, Sullivan said internships are an “essential opportunity” for young people to gain real-world work experience and employers to interact with their future employees.
The coordinator will work under the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management, though a candidate has not yet been selected.
The legislation is a part of Spanberger’s larger goal to expand work opportunities for Virginia students and new graduates before they enter the workforce. A week before the bills were signed, Spanberger celebrated her InternshipsVA initiative winning an Economic Development Organization award from Business Facilities, which is a business magazine that recognizes programs across America that promote business and workforce development.
Spanberger announced InternshipsVA in February as one of her first economic development initiatives. The program provides Virginia employers with technical and financial support to host interns from Virginia colleges, and since February, the program has created more than 600 internship opportunities.
According to David Lapinski, director of experiential learning at the University Career Center, the Career Center is in regular communication with one of the bill’s partner organizations, the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia.
“From our understanding … one of the roles of the [coordinator will be] to organize, structure and provide more streamlined experiences for students doing internships in state government,” Lapinski said.
Lapinski also said that based on the information the Career Center has received about the internship coordinator, the coordinator will also help standardize the process of finding government internships. Currently, Lapinski said the process is “more one-off,” and it depends on when a state agency or organization is interested in employing an intern.
“This coordinator will be able to help manage those experiences, which in itself will create a lot of opportunities for students across the Commonwealth,” Lapinski said. “We want to be in-sync with this [coordinator], so we can make sure that U.Va. students are front-of-line to hopefully receive these internships.”
As for internship and work opportunities the Career Center currently guides students towards, Lapinski said the Center directs students to many internship programs and jobs found on Handshake, and he said they are continuously growing this body of programming for students. Lapinski named specific opportunities the Center partners with, such as student employment opportunities through the University, the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, the Environmental Institute and SCHEV’s Virginia Talent and Opportunity Partnership.
Lapinski said that a major goal for the Career Center is to expand funding opportunities for internships and student work, which the Center is continuously making progress towards.
The Career Center offers application-based grants for students pursuing unfunded internships, which Lapinski said is often the only way that students receive funding for their work in sectors including the nonprofit, environmental and arts fields. Lapinski said the Career Center also partners with Riipen to fund short, three to four week micro-internships for students to work on career-relevant projects.
Lapinski said the Internship Placement Program — which he noted as the Career Center’s most robust program — serves between 350 and 400 students per semester, but the program receives more than 1200 applications. According to Lapinski, being able to provide more resources towards growing the number of IPP opportunities would be “incredibly helpful” for Career Center services.
According to Lapinski, the Career Center expects the new internship coordinator to mainly help expand paid public service internship opportunities and potentially other “needs” in the scientific and arts industries.
“Since these are more state-focused roles working in state government, there may not be as many of those [other roles in science and arts],” Lapinski said. “For [the Career Center] to grow those other areas, we have to go out to the private market … to build partnerships with employers.”
Though the bill will not be able to create a funding mechanism for all industries, Lapinski said he believes the bill is a step in the right direction for providing more work experience for Virginia college students.
“As we look at our relationship with [the coordinator], a key area is to understand the high needs skill areas that the new coordinator identifies within the Commonwealth,” Lapinski said. “Therefore, we can look at ways that we can prepare students for those skills … so they’re ready for these opportunities.”
The start date for the internship coordinator has not yet been announced, nor has the individual who will hold the role.
Melody Yuan is a staff writer on the news desk. She is a second-year student in the College studying Economics and Statistics from Richmond, Va.
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