Greensboro, NC (April 17, 2024) — The College of Arts & Sciences at UNC Greensboro has been awarded a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to implement a five-year paid internship and educational program for humanities students called “Humanities at Work.” This landmark grant is the largest ever received by UNCG’s College of Arts & Sciences – as well as one of the largest in the University’s history.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be one of only five universities in the country to receive this historic award from the Mellon Foundation,” said UNCG Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. “The Humanities at Work project will not only provide hundreds of UNCG humanities students with high-quality, paid internship experiences, but it will also help them to articulate the value of a humanities degree to potential employers, translating to fulfilling careers.”
The backbone of this program is the transformative value of paid internships, which will impact 650 students and 130 local nonprofits over five years. “This funding allows UNCG to serve as a national model for closing equity gaps,” said Dr. Maura Heyn, co-PI and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. According to a 2023 study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, unpaid internships increase inequity and create longstanding hurdles in career advancement, particularly for Black and first-generation college students. Read more…
Meet the Team
Principal Investigators
Dr. Heather Adams,
Faculty Director
Associate Professor, English Department
Dr. Jennifer Feather
Department Head, English Department
Dr. Maura Heyn
Associate Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Humanities @ Work Personnel
Dr. Lauren Shook
Internship Coordinator
Dr. Lauren Shook received her Ph.D. in English from UNC Greensboro in 2015. Specializing in Shakespeare, food justice, and community-engaged pedagogy, Shook is excited to put her scholarship into action by joining the Humanities At Work team. As the program’s internship coordinator, she works with humanities departments to recruit students, facilitates students’ placement with community partners, teaches the program’s internship course, and organizes speakers and programming for the course. Shook is most looking forward to collaborating with UNCG students, faculty, staff, and community partners – while helping students advocate for their passions and live out meaningful careers and lives.
support for the program
“This program will not only bolster students’ participation in the internship but will protect them from overload and resulting detraction from their studies, a problem that working students often face. This grant will provide a much-needed resource for our students.”
–Dr. Jazmin Graves Eyssallenne, Assistant Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies, UNCG
“Access to a paid, high-quality internship can change the trajectory of a person’s career. According to NACE (2024), the median starting salary of those who had paid internships is $20,000 higher than those who had unpaid internships. UNCG will open the door to career changing internships for 650 students thanks to Humanities @ Work.”
–Megan Walters, Director, UNCG Career and Professional Development
“The Guilford Nonprofit Consortium’s mission is to build capacity among our 300+ members to create a more efficient, effective nonprofit sector in Guildford County, NC. As a staunch supporter of the humanities and a beneficiary of strong liberal arts education, I see this project as critical to our mission as we are training up a new generation of non-profit leaders. ”
–Mary Herbenick, Director of the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium
105 Foust Building
P.O. Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402