How Young People Are Impacted as NPR and Other Employers Announce Internship Cuts

Here and Now • Produced by NPR and WBUR-FM in Boston • Co-host Deepa Fernandes • December 15, 2022

“You know, you connected us with a University of Michigan graduate student, named Larisa Mednis, and she’s fighting to have her school pay students $20 an hour to complete required internships. She is studying social work and also working as an unpaid intern at a community center. Her net income from a separate part-time job each month is about $400 and she’s on food stamps and she says that many of her classmates are even worse off.

‘There’s a national social worker shortage and everyone likes to sit around scratching their heads and wondering why. This is why. We shouldn’t have to make so many sacrifices just because we decided to earn a degree that’s designed to uphold the social safety net and better our communities and society.’

Carlos [Mark Vera], what I’m hearing from Larisa is something that you’ve told us in the past about how students feel there’s a need for universities to provide funding to pay them for their hours of working these internships. How common is this and has there been a larger movement on that front?”

Listen to the segment. Payment for Placements is discussed at 4:15.