The beginning of the school year brings a variety of opportunities for students to get involved on campus.
The IU Student Association organized the Freshman Internship Program, which offers freshmen an opportunity to develop leadership abilities through hands-on experience with IUSA.
Daniel Niersbach, the 2015 FIP director, oversees the program and helps decide which freshmen IUSA will accept as interns.
“A lot of the application deals with leadership experience and what the freshman has been able to do in the past. For me, the thing I am looking for most is impact,” Niersbach said. “It’s one thing to have a ton of different activities and clubs to put on a resume, but if you didn’t have any impact within those different communities then that’s not showing the leadership skills and the initiative that we’re looking for.”
However, Niersbach said students with little to no previous experience should not be discouraged from applying.
“Tell me why you want to change campus, or if there is an issue that you see that you want to help fix,” Niersbach said. ”That demonstrates initiative as well because not only does it show that you’ve already thought about how to make your school better, it also shows that you’re willing to put in the work to make it a better place.”
The list of daily responsibilities varies from intern to intern and is largely based on the staff member for whom they are working.
“We try to keep interns busy, but we also want to make sure that they have time to be freshmen, get adjusted to college and to do their schoolwork,” Niersbach said.
Throughout the fall semester, interns complete two projects outside of their regular set of duties.
“It’s incredible what freshmen who still don’t understand everything around IU yet are able to come up with,” Niersbach said.
Culture of Care, a student-led initiative designed to promote cultural awareness in the areas of sexual well-being, drug and alcohol awareness and mental health, was created by a group interns for their team project.
“To have it now funded by the University as an independent organization is a quick turnover,” Niersbach said. “I think it’s really cool how we give freshmen an opportunity to have an effect like that on campus.”
The exact volume of applicants fluctuates, but IUSA receives an average of 200 to 300 FIP applications each year.
With somewhere between 10 to 20 internship opportunities available, the majority of students will not receive an internship.
“It all depends on who actually needs an intern,” Niersbach said. “We don’t want to give freshmen a role where they won’t be engaged in the office.”
Students who are not accepted into the program have other ways of getting involved with IUSA, Niersbach said.
“If you don’t get the internship, you can still apply and be a part of different projects or committees within IUSA,” Niersbach said. “We’re always looking for people to help with initiatives and our projects. We’ll also be recruiting for our committees and increase our staff during the fall.”
Niersbach said the positive experiences he had as an intern last year motivated him to remain involved with the program.
“I want them to love every minute of IU, every minute that they are involved in IUSA and to build the connections and make friendships with people who are going to be leaders some day on campus and can really create positive change.” Niersbach said.
Freshmen can apply to the program online at IUSA’s website. The deadline for application is Sept. 5.
