Six students take the Bridge Beyond Carolina

The Bridge Beyond Carolina officially launched this summer, with the inaugural cohort of six students beginning their internships. The program provides funding that allows students to pursue a nonfaculty career by completing an internship outside the University that would otherwise be unpaid.

“The Bridge Beyond Carolina program is a product of The Graduate Schools’ strategic goal of ‘Growing with North Carolina,’” said Dean Beth Mayer-Davis. “We want to serve North Carolina’s workforce needs by producing highly qualified graduates with the experience and skills needed to make an immediate impact. This program helps our graduates meet that mission.”

This program does not fulfill graduate internship requirements, but it does allow students to apply their classroom knowledge in the real world, gaining valuable experience in their area of study. This experience can provide a competitive advantage when students are searching for jobs.

The Graduate School offers exclusive opportunities with host organizations for UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students that can only be accessed through Bridge Beyond Carolina. Students can apply to one of these curated internship opportunities, or they may propose an internship project and host organization of their choosing. Once selected for the Bridge Beyond Carolina program, all students receive the same benefits from the program.

Here are the 2024 Bridge Beyond Carolina interns, all based in departments in the College of Arts and Sciences:

• Anna Broadwell-Gulde of the English and comparative literature department, internship focused on faculty and graduate student professional development at the National Humanities Center
• Sarah Brown of the sociology department, internship focused on social, statistical and environmental sciences justice practice area at RTI International
• Brittany Hutchinson of the American studies department, interning as digital library editor and content curator at the National Humanities Center
• Braedan Lynn of the political science department, internship focused on cannabis policy and law research at Davis Legal PLLC
• Lara Pur of the English and comparative literature department, internship focused on science and technology development at NCBiotech
• Abbey Warchol of the history department, internship focused on academic publishing at the University of North Carolina Press

These individuals were awarded internships based on their readiness to use this time productively to carry out a well-articulated internship plan and explore definitive career and learning goals.

Support for student success

At the end of May, The Graduate School hosted a session for Bridge Beyond Carolina students and other interns to help prepare them for the months ahead. The session included a self-assessment exercise led by local trainer Peter Metzner, followed by instruction from The Graduate School’s Katie Stember and Vanessa Doriott Anderson on dealing with culture shock, setting clear expectations with new supervisors and increasing self-awareness. More sessions will be held throughout the summer to support students during their participation in the program.

Internships for summer 2024 run through mid-August. The application deadline for summer 2025 will be in late March 2025.