Build Strategic Capacity: How Interns Can Transform Your Scholarship Program

Scholarship program management is complex. Your lean team juggles an overwhelming administrative lifecycle: marketing scholarships, processing applications, screening candidates, managing volunteers, tracking payments, maintaining donor relationships, reporting outcomes, ensuring compliance—and more. Each stage requires meticulous attention and significant time investment.

Now, add today’s rapidly shifting landscape:

• Regulatory compliance and audit readiness

• Federal and state financial aid changes

• Higher education enrollment trends

• Inflation’s impact on students

• Technology disruptions (AI, digital access, equity)

• Anti-DEI policies and Title IX challenges

With so much to navigate, how can scholarship professionals stay strategic while managing growing administrative demands?

Interns: A Scalable, Cost-Effective Solution

A strategic intern is more than an extra set of hands. Instead, they provide:

• Critical support to alleviate administrative burdens

• Fresh perspectives to refine your processes

• Scalable capacity at a low cost compared to hiring full-time staff

Instead of hiring a full-time employee at $50,000 per year, you can bring on a motivated student intern for just $3,500 per semester—a high-impact, low-cost solution for your organization.

Benefits for You and Your Organization

• Reduced administrative burden

• Increased strategic thinking capacity

• Cost-effective support

• Fresh perspectives from emerging professionals

• Additional hands to navigate complex challenges

Benefits for Students

• Real-world professional experience

• Paid opportunity to earn income

• Skill development

• Potential career pathway

• Meaningful contribution to an organization's mission

Real-World Impact: Internship Success Stories

Case Study A: Did you know that Student First Consulting’s own Sarah Battersby built out her community foundation’s internship program, through which she hired our own Julia Da Silva as her very first intern? Julia took an untold number of administrative tasks off Sarah’s plate and added unexpected value by completing the first research study on community foundation best-practice scholarships. Her work not only contributed to the foundation's success at the time but continues to have a lasting impact, inspiring new insights and best practices for the industry. In fact, her research directly inspired our blog post on ideal scholarships, demonstrating how an intern’s contributions can ripple far beyond their tenure.

Case Study B: One of our recent focus group participants, a scholarship program director, told us that the biggest recent impact on her program was hiring an intern, who greatly reduced her administrative workload and used her evaluation expertise to provide groundbreaking insights into program outcomes.

How to Create a High-Impact Internship

1. Assess Your Needs

Identify the specific administrative and strategic tasks that are consuming your team's time and mental bandwidth. Take a critical look at your current workflows, pinpointing repetitive tasks, areas of potential efficiency, and strategic initiatives that require more focused attention. Calculate the potential hours you could save and the strategic capacity you could unlock by bringing in an intern.

Ideas for intern projects:

• Research and propose new applicant outreach strategies for broader reach. This intern could analyze current outreach methods, research best practices from other organizations, and suggest specific platforms or partnerships to target underrepresented student populations.

• Develop an alumni engagement plan, fostering connections and support. The intern might research successful alumni programs, survey past recipients for their interests, and propose initiatives like a mentorship program or alumni networking events.

• Assist in collecting compelling stories showcasing scholarship impact on students. This could involve the intern conducting interviews with scholarship recipients, drafting narratives, and organizing these stories for use in reports or marketing materials.

• Support the recruitment, training, and coordination of volunteer application reviewers. The intern could help create recruitment materials, organize training sessions, and manage communication with volunteers during the review process.

• Research and summarize key policy changes affecting financial aid and scholarships. This intern would monitor government websites, industry publications, and legal updates, then create concise summaries and potential implications for the organization.

• Create user-friendly training materials for scholarship applicants and reviewers. The intern could develop guides, FAQs, or video tutorials to improve clarity and efficiency in the application and review processes.

• Assist with crafting engaging communications for current and prospective donors. The intern could help write thank-you notes, draft newsletter articles highlighting program impact, or create social media content for donor engagement.

• Provide support for planning and executing scholar or donor events. The intern might assist with logistics, manage RSVPs, help with marketing materials, or support on-site event coordination.

• Research and recommend technology solutions to streamline program administration. This intern could explore different software options for application management, communication, or reporting, and present their findings and recommendations to the team.

2. Develop a Comprehensive Job Description (Bonus Template for You!)

Craft a detailed, mission-aligned job description that clearly outlines responsibilities, learning objectives, and organizational expectations. Use this template we developed to ensure you're creating a meaningful opportunity that attracts motivated students. When considering compensation for the internship, we strongly recommend offering a competitive hourly wage, ideally between $25 and $30 per hour, to reflect the value the intern will bring and to attract high-quality candidates. Focus on the specific projects and skills the intern will develop, making the opportunity compelling for potential candidates.

3. Recruitment Strategies

Leverage both traditional and innovative recruitment channels to find the right candidate. Connect with local educational institutions' career services, use platforms like Handshake, explore virtual internship options, and tap into your professional networks. Consider reaching out to community colleges, universities, and organizations that support students from diverse backgrounds.

4. Interview and Selection Process

Keep it simple and student-friendly. One to two brief, conversational 20-30 minute interviews can assess basic communication skills, genuine interest, and mission alignment. Look for enthusiasm and willingness to learn, recognizing students are balancing multiple commitments.

5. Onboarding and Professional Development

Create a structured onboarding plan that goes beyond basic orientation. Develop a comprehensive training program that includes:

• Regular check-in schedules

• Clear performance expectations

• Access to necessary tools and systems

• Opportunities for skill development

• Mentorship and professional guidance

By approaching internships as a strategic partnership, you're not just getting administrative support—you're investing in the next generation of leadership—maybe your program or organization’s!

Avoid Issues with Thoughtful Planning

Potential Mistakes

Organizations often fall into predictable traps when developing internship programs. These mistakes can range from treating interns as free labor to providing insufficient guidance and structure. Without careful planning, internships can become frustrating experiences for both the organization and the student, failing to deliver the mutual benefits that make these programs valuable.

Best Practices to Mitigate Risks

Successful internship programs require intentional design and ongoing management. This means developing clear expectations, creating meaningful work assignments, and providing consistent mentorship. Organizations should view internships as a two-way learning opportunity, designing experiences that benefit both the student and the organization. Regular communication, structured feedback, and a commitment to professional development are key to transforming potential risks into positive outcomes.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Internship programs must navigate a complex landscape of legal and ethical responsibilities. This includes ensuring fair compensation, complying with labor regulations, and creating an inclusive environment that provides genuine educational value. Organizations must be mindful of power dynamics, commit to meaningful learning experiences, and treat interns with the same respect and consideration given to other team members. The goal is to create an environment that supports professional growth while maintaining legal and ethical standards.

Measuring Internship Program Success

Track these key metrics to evaluate your program's effectiveness:

1. Intern satisfaction surveys: learning opportunities, skill development, overall experience

2. Organizational impact: time saved by core staff, quality of work produced, complexity of tasks completed

3. Long-term outcomes: intern career progression, potential future hires, network and relationship building

Call to Action: Your Internship Journey Starts Now

The overwhelm you're experiencing—both from your current complex job responsibilities and the prospect of implementing this—is valid, but don't let it stop you from moving forward. Take these immediate steps:

1. Audit your current administrative tasks this week

2. Use our template to draft a preliminary internship job description

3. Reach out to local college career services

4. Schedule an initial planning meeting with your team

Remember, starting an internship program is a journey. You'll learn, adapt, and improve with each iteration. Start small, be flexible, and remember: the worst-case scenario is spending time with a motivated student. The best-case scenario? You'll gain a strategic ally, free up your mental bandwidth, and contribute to a student's professional growth.

---

Struggling with team capacity, high turnover, or ineffective talent development? We offer comprehensive support to transform scholarship teams:

• Strategic internship and fellowship program design

• Targeted interim staffing solutions

• Systemic approaches to staffing challenges

Break free from workforce constraints. Schedule your free 30-minute consultation today and discover how we can elevate your team's strategic capabilities.