The Class of 1967 Internship Program at the Wellesley Centers for Women
Social Science Research Internships for Wellesley College Students
Each year, the Wellesley Centers for Women offers five to six paid internships to Wellesley College students through the Class of 1967 Internship Program. Throughout the academic year, students who participate in the program:
- Gain hands-on social science research experience under the mentorship of a WCW research scientist
- Receive a $3,000 stipend
- Contribute to ongoing research projects or design their own study related to gender equality, social justice, or human wellbeing
- Have the opportunity to co-author papers, attend conferences, present alongside their WCW mentor, or present at Wellesley's Tanner or Ruhlman conferences.
- Make a difference in the world through research and action
The program is open to rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Throughout the academic year, interns are expected to work an average of 8-10 hours per week, excluding finals week, holidays, and breaks. Interns are required to submit a final report and complete a video or blog post about their experience.
Apply in Workday. Log into the “My Wellesley” portal and select “Workday” and “Find a Summer Internship.” Choose "Academic Year Internships at the Wellesley Centers for Women" from the results. Use Career Education's instructions to guide you. Applications for the 2023-24 Academic Year are due 5:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.
Additional mentors for the 2023-24 academic year will be posted shortly.
Mentor: Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D.
Currently, several research projects are being conducted under the umbrella of Work, Families and Children at the Wellesley Centers for Women. Much of our work is on child development (birth to age 8) and early education and care. I am willing to supervise any research project a student wishes to complete on any topic in human development, early education and care as well as on any topic that includes children, women, families or work.
The intern will develop an independent project that will be completed over the academic year. Projects may include data collection through surveys, observations or interviews. They may also be more academic in nature and delve deeper into a current problem or concern of interest to the student. Often our interns have done both and use surveys, observations and interviews to supplement and support their research. Supervision and mentoring will be provided to help guide the intern.
Intern's Responsibilities: Develop a topic of exploration and accompanying research questions, complete a literature review, design a study, collect data, do analyses, write a paper, and present at the Ruhlman conference. Weekly meetings with Dr. Robeson will take place.
Skills Required: The intern must be able to work well independently. Having prior psychology classes in child development or education classes is a plus. Prior work in conducting analyses is also a plus but not a requirement.
Mentor: Jennifer Grossman, Ph.D.
Subject of Intern's Project: Help to develop and revise an online program to support healthy father-teen conversations about sex and relationships.
Intern's Responsibilities: The intern will work with the project director to develop and revise online curriculum materials including videos and graphics, plan and implement focus groups, and analyze and write up qualitative data findings. The intern will have opportunities to learn about adolescent development, family-teen relationships, and sex education programs as well as how to conduct qualitative research.
Skills Required: High level of organization and motivation. Interest in sex education and teen-family relationships. Strong analytic skills. Familiarity with or willingness to learn qualitative coding and data analysis and use of Qualtrics software for program development and evaluation.
Experience Intern Can Expect to Gain: Program development and evaluation, qualitative data collection, coding, and analysis, and collaborative research.
Mentor: Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D.
Subject of Intern's Project: Adolescent mental wellbeing on social media
Dr. Charmaraman leads several research projects within the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab pertaining to the risks and benefits of using social technologies in adolescence. These projects include a) survey and interview studies of middle school students and their parents on how they manage social technology use, b) implementing digital wellbeing, identity, and STEM workshops to middle school youth, c) collecting and analyzing survey data related to online civic engagement and identity (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, political), and d) developing and piloting digital citizenship lessons for youth. Depending on funding at the time of the internship, the intern may be involved in a new NIH project that involves interviewing teens about their pets and their technology use. Because disseminating our research findings is key to making positive changes in our communities, our intern will actively engage in disseminating our upcoming events and research findings such as maintaining a strong Instagram presence for our lab @youthmediawellbeing. Dr. Charmaraman hopes to mentor someone who is interested in exploring graduate school or a future career in either research or nonprofit work. In addition, there is a possibility of co-publishing a peer-reviewed article depending on the motivation and dedication level of the intern.
Intern's Responsibilities:
- Support research activities across multiple projects
- Search for relevant literature for reports, manuscripts, and grant proposals
- Write literature summaries
- Format documents and reference lists
- Conduct hour-long Zoom interviews with teens
- Manage an interview codebook
- Learn NVivo to analyze qualitative data
- Work with a team to interpret quantitative and qualitative results
- Co-presenting works-in-progress at WCW lecture series, Ruhlman conference, or community-based webinar
- Assist with writing blogs, social media postings, website content, infographics, and/or research briefs about project findings
- Ability to meet on a regular basis at Cheever House and arrange schedule to meet intern-related deadlines. For instance, a typical 10-hr weekly schedule is to meet in-person for 5-6 hours each week, then work independently to complete the work.
Skills Required:
- Enthusiasm for participating in team-based research and action projects related to adolescent social media use
- Some coursework in at least one of the following fields is required: psychology, education, statistics, sociology, ethnic studies, women's and gender studies, communications, computer science, media, arts, & sciences, social science methods (quantitative or qualitative)
- Ability to multitask and respond to work requests by email in a timely manner
- Good written communication and copyediting skills
- Prior experience working with youth aged 10-17 desirable (e.g., summer camp, mentorship programs, tutoring, etc.)
- Experience with creating Instagram posts and design using Canva
- Experience with Qualtrics, SPSS or R a plus
- Pet lovers encouraged to apply
Mentor: Georgia Hall, Ph.D.
Subject of Intern's Project: Working with our research team to analyze and summarize observation findings and youth focus groups conducted as part of our study in Philadelphia Out- of-School Time Programs. Conducting background research on literacy skill-building for young children and effective teaching/learning strategies.
Intern's Responsibilities: Provide support to the research team on data organizing and analysis tasks. Assist researcher with writing, summarizing, and sharing findings.
Skills Required: Writing, summarizing, experience with excel and powerpoint a plus. Will have opportunity to learn NVivo software program for coding and analysis.
Apply in Workday. Log into the “My Wellesley” portal and select “Workday” and “Find a Summer Internship.” Choose "Academic Year Internships at the Wellesley Centers for Women" from the results. Use Career Education's instructions to guide you. Applications for the 2023-24 Academic Year are due 5:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.
Any registered Wellesley College student with a GPA of at least 3.0 may apply for the Class of 1967 Internship Program. Students must be registered at the College during the year of the internship. Interested students should become acquainted with the mission of WCW and the work of their desired mentor.
After all applications are received, the Search Committee will choose a selection of applicants to move onto round 2 of the application process - mentor interviews. During this stage, applicants will be asked to meet with their potential mentor for a Zoom interview. The mentor's feedback will be considered by the Search Committee during the final selection process. At this time, final candidates will be asked to submit a letter of recommendation from their advisor or another member of the Wellesley College faculty.
If there are any questions about this process, please email Karen Lachance at klachance@wellesley.edu.
I am a first year student and only have shadow grades. Can I apply?
Yes. There is a way of showing your actual grades on your transcript. Please send your transcript in a way that displays those grades.
I will graduate in December during the internship year. Can I apply?
Yes, you can apply provided you meet the other qualifications. Note: it is ultimately up to the mentor whether or not a December graduation will be okay in their situation.
I am going to be abroad for a semester next year. Can I apply?
Yes, you can apply. Note: it is ultimately up to the mentors whether or not a semester abroad will be okay in their situation.
The Career Education office is happy to help Wellesley College students with their internship applications:
- Review resume and cover letter resources through the Career Essentials page
- Schedule a 1:1 meeting through Handshake with a Career Ed advisor
- Drop-in during Quick Questions with Career Education
Thanks to the generous donors who make these internships possible:
- The Anne Murray Ladd Student Internship was established in 2005 by family and friends in memory of Anne Murray Ladd, a 1998 Wellesley College Honors graduate.
- The Linda Coyne Lloyd Student Research Internship was established in 1998 by family and friends in memory of Linda Coyne Lloyd '63, a long-time, active supporter of the Wellesley Centers for Women. This internship gives preference to students who are interested in engaging in policy-oriented research.
- Shirley R. Sherr Student Research Internship was established in 1998 by a generous gift from Lynn Sherr '63, and her sister, Lois Dubin, in honor of their mother.
- The Class of 1967 Internship was established by a generous gift from the Wellesley College Class of 1967, in 1992 on the occasion of its 25th reunion.
- The Morse Fellowship was established in 1992 by a generous gift from Richard P. Morse and Claire Wien Morse '57 of Brookline, MA. This fellowship gives preference to students with career interests in the fields of mental health or wellbeing.
