The ability to obtain crucial hands-on experience in one’s area of interest through internships has proven to be a game-changer for college students looking to better define their professional path.
In fact, research revealed that over 80% of graduates said their internships had influenced the course of their careers. According to studies, internships are crucial — even a lifeline — for the professional futures of students of color.
Students throughout the country are more likely to secure full-time employment after graduation if they have internships on their CVs. While 74 percent of white students have taken part in paid internships, on average just 6.6 percent of Black students and 7.9 percent of Latino students have. Both demographics are overrepresented in unpaid internships at the same time. According to critics, these differences present difficulties for potential employers that want to diversify their workforce.
This month, the platform InternXL (formerly InternX) debuted in response to the equity gap in our country’s workforce, giving enterprises of all sizes, including Fortune 500 corporations, access to pre-screened, diverse entry-level talent.
“If America is to remain competitive in the rising global digital economy, business and academia must collaborate to engage diverse talent,” said Black billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith, Founder and President of Fund II Foundation as well as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, an InternXL partner company.
When Smith promised a $34 million contribution to Atlanta’s historically Black Morehouse College in 2019, he made news by clearing the debts of 400 graduates and their parents. He believes that increasing students of color’s access to professional opportunities is important for boosting national competitiveness and security. He noted, “We built internxl.org – to create pipelines and opportunities for minority students to work with many of the top tech companies in the world, providing experiences that many students never thought were accessible.”
At this time, the InternXL platform has more than 220 firms as partners and participants, as well as more than 17,000 pre-screened students. It provides students with the ability to acquire certifications in a range of disciplines and skills, including the cloud, cybersecurity, Salesforce, and project management, among others, through its more than 1,300 courses offered as part of its tiered Learning Management System (LMS) within the system.
To help students get ready for life-changing internships that might result in long-term professional success, the LMS also provides resources for mental health, advice on how to present oneself professionally, and even instructions on how to prepare nutritious meals.
The goals of Smith’s nonprofit, Student Freedom Initiative, which offers opportunities for STEM majors at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to receive income-contingent funding instead of conventional college loans that have taken a toll on their financial futures, are also in line with the relaunch of the InternXL platform. In comparison to 56 percent of white students, more than 70 percent of Black students borrow money to pay for their higher education, according to the American Association of University Women. The Brookings Institute also discovers that the debt gap between Black and White college graduates more than triples after graduation, with Black graduates owing $7,400 more than their white colleagues.
Throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, the InternXL team will be touring HBCU schools in support of their objectives, offering students free career-readiness training and tools to better equip them for their distinctive internship experiences. The program will expand on InternXL’s $15,000 March 2022 donation to Tuskegee University in Alabama, which gave students their professional photographs and clothes to use while applying for internships and jobs.
Director Walter P. Cooper, Sr. stated that “the impact of this initiative has been a game-changer for The Career Education and Leadership Development Center at Tuskegee University.”
He added, “The InternXL team saw a need and immediately acted to bring forth transformational change — not only through their own professional resources — but also with financial support.”
As the director of the InternXL program, Ivana Jackson argues that internships help level the playing field and that the platform “is uniquely positioned to bring precision, diversity, inclusion, and efficiency to the internship matching process for thousands of talented and skilled young adults across the country.”
“The objective of InternXL is to provide value to both the employer and the student by providing highly qualified, pre-screened entry-level talent for the employer and providing ‘on-ramps’ to high-quality jobs that help students begin their professional careers,” explained Jackson.
To guarantee that students reach their full potential in a cutthroat global industry, InternXL and its partners will continue to collaborate closely with HBCUs.
