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College assignments. Debate team. Part-time barista. Mona Salama has a lot on her plate while still trying to make room for her unpaid internship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need the experience,\u201d says Salama. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating realizing that I\u2019m devoting hours a day to a company and not getting paid, but this is me getting my foot in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from being a sophomore in John Jay College of Criminal Justice where she takes four courses, Salama works part-time at a nearby Starbucks. Since her internship as a legal assistant does not pay, she took the job as a means of making ends meet. However, being a barista seems miles away from her career path.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting free coffee is important, but I\u2019m a law student and I need to be in that kind of environment,\u201d says Salama. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t because this opportunity is a stepping stone to one day becoming a lawyer, I probably would never intern for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with a part-time job on top of a busy schedule, Salama isn’t able to turn down an unpaid internship because it is a gateway to her career–the same is true for many college students. When that stepping stone is unpaid, students must decide if they can afford the responsibility that does not come with a paycheck. Laboring for free becomes a privilege of the middle and upper classes in that context.<\/p>\n
A 2019 student survey report<\/span><\/a> by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that there are fewer options available to students of color, women and first-generation students in terms of paid internships<\/span>. And in a similar study, the NACE<\/span><\/a> cited that diverse fields like journalism, marketing and social work were more likely to have unpaid internship applications than those dominated by white males, such as IT, business and computer science.<\/p>\n Unpaid internships are more common among students because paid internships are highly competitive and highly sought-after, says Hunter College career coordinator Amy Robbins. \u201cI explain to students that the real value in taking an unpaid internship is the work experience, the specific skills acquired, and the professional connections made,\u201d says Robbins.<\/p>\n Full-time NYU student Lauren Cheung, 21, who rents a shared apartment in Manhattan, says that interning as an editorial assistant for $25 a day came at a high cost. \u201cI was paid a stipend that on most days didn’t cover food and transport; I barely broke even,\u201d says Cheung. \u201cI would have liked to have been paid at least minimum wage because sometimes it\u2019d cost more to go into work than if I had just stayed home.\u201d<\/p>\n After studying long hours towards their undergraduate degree, Cheung had little motivation to step into the office of their internship after a full day. \u201cI believe that interns that work with a monetary incentive may turn out better quality work,\u201d says Cheung. \u201cWhen it comes down to it, I’m not so sure that doing menial labor for a loss will keep the lights on and the water running.\u201d They were grateful to have had some money saved from previous jobs, otherwise, they could not take on such a poorly paid position.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2021-11-15-at-8.09.01-PM-300x187.png\")
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