The Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado and Business Education Connection (BEC) have designed an intensive paid summer internship program with in-person learning opportunities for 13 local high school students that will benefit selected La Plata County nonprofits. Nonprofits will receive a complete social media campaign for their organization. 

Nonprofits selected to participate would host a rising junior or senior high school intern for four weeks, 36 hours a week from June 7 to July 2.  In addition to helping at the office, students will be assigned social media tasks. The work environment would need to include engaging onsite opportunities working directly with nonprofit staff, in person Tuesday through Friday. There will also be prearranged offsite workshops for the students, with a full day on Mondays and half days on Wednesdays and Fridays. These workshops will be coordinated with local experts to help create social media products for the selected nonprofits.  

In addition to the assigned intern, nonprofits will receive an operational grant, which will be a minimum of $2,000, upon successful completion of this program. These grant funds are designed for execution of the marketing efforts created by the intern. 

“With COVID restrictions last summer, the funders wanted to create a meaningful workplace experience for high school youth,” says Briggen Wrinkle, Community Foundation executive director. “The ultimate goal is to make this a win-win for the students and the nonprofits.” 

For nonprofits to be considered for this grant and internship opportunity, a letter of consideration needs to be submitted to the Community Foundation by March 24. Requirements for the application letter can be found at swcommunityfoundation.org/intern. Submitting a letter of consideration does not guarantee selection. 

Rising junior and senior high school students will be able to apply for these paid internships beginning March 29. Interested students can contact Janae Hunderman, work-based learning coordinator for BEC, at janae@businesseducationconnection.org. 

As a community facilitator, the Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado works to increase efficiency, resiliency, and success for area nonprofits, while maximizing effective grantmaking for philanthropists in our region.