URBAN INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Your career begins here.
Program Highlights
Our network of hundreds of agencies, corporate organizations, arts groups, and other institutions will provide the internship that will allow you to contribute in significant and meaningful ways within a supportive work environment.
Highlighting cultures from around the world, our trusted network of community based resources will introduce you to their neighborhood through historical context, current initiatives, and often their life's work every week in our Communities and Cultures seminar. Get ready to expand your worldview.
Have access to the entire city and feel like a resident. Master public transportation, sample food from all over the world, enjoy a world class arts scene, and take advantage of everything that comes along with living in the nation's third largest city.
Don't have a place to live in Chicago? You don't have to worry as all of our students live together in an apartment building located in the Hyde Park neighborhood. Gain the life skills you'll need after graduation through managing a grocery budget, cooking meals, and learning in a cooperative living environment.
Explore your strengths, perfect your resume, gain valuable financial knowledge, and get extra support from staff through our LEAD Program. All Chicago Center students participate in six to eight sessions throughout their semester.
About the Internship Program
​This program is perfect for you if you are a student who:
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Is looking for a unique experience living and learning in one of America’s largest cities for a semester
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Wants to explore a career path through real-world application and rigorous, seminar-style courses
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Is ready to gain work experience in a 4 days a week internship
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Will thrive in an independent learning environment, simulating post-graduate life, fostering independence, confidence, self-reflection, and growth
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Students enrolled at the Chicago Center during fall or spring semester will work with our staff to find an internship (4 days a week) that best meets their academic and career goals. You will receive nine academic credits for your internship and six credits for it’s included seminars, Communities and Cultures and Directed Study. The Communities and Cultures seminar allows for the city to become a classroom and for students to expand their worldview through experiences in different cultures and conversations with community partners throughout the city. In our Directed Study seminar you'll conceive of and conduct a research project throughout the semester that is focused on a topic of your choosing, but is centered around a topic relating to the city. You will present your findings at the end of the semester.
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Internship – 9 credits
Communities and Cultures Seminar – 3 credits
Directed Study Seminar – 3 credit
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Learn More
Above all, my time at the Chicago Center has made me career ready and not just that, but I have a deeper understanding of interconnectedness of communities and urban issues in Chicago.
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Allison Nesbitt, FA'22