Privilege & Poverty Internships

How It Works

The Privilege & Poverty Academic Cluster offers summer internship opportunities locally in Addison County and nationally through the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP). These cohort-based, funded internships help you connect intellectual interest to firsthand understanding of the complex dimensions of poverty. Choose from diverse opportunities across a variety of fields or propose an opportunity that suits your specific goals.

The P&P Summer Internship program fulfills the experiential learning component of the P&P Academic Cluster curriculum. Preference in the internship program is given to applicants who have completed relevant prior coursework in the Privilege & Poverty program.

Internships in Addison County

Each summer, Middlebury College students can participate in a full-time, paid, nine-week internship to aid local organizations in addressing issues of poverty in Addison County. Students work 35 paid hours per week at a local, social service organization in the community (see host sites below). Internships begin in mid-June and continue through mid-August.

CCE staff work with interns throughout the summer, meeting weekly to discuss internship experiences and issues intersecting with poverty. Along with their internship, interns will commit to these weekly discussions, a final written reflection and a presentation in the fall following their internship summer.

Participating organizations provide on-site mentorship, orientation, training, and evaluation.

Local summer internships are available at the following organizations:

• Atria Collective (formerly WomenSafe) - Interns provide crisis intervention, information, and support to individuals impacted by family violence via a 24-hour hotline.
• John Graham Housing and Services - Interns support individuals and families working toward stable housing and work on home efficiency projects.
• HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects) - Interns staff the front desk, connect individuals and families to services, and support the food shelf programs.
• Open Door Clinic - Interns support the healthcare, public health, and access/provision of medical services to particular population, including providing medical translation for Spanish-speaking clients and their health-care providers.
• Charter House Coalition - Interns work with emergency housing shelter staff to provide safe housing and food to community members who are unhoused
• The Teen Center - Interns help to plan and deliver summer programming for the teen center camps and daily programs in addition to supporting the teens.
• Addison County Public Defender/Addison County Restorative Justice Services - Interns split time between Public Defender’s office and ACRJS, working with clients who are encountering the criminal justice system. For the Public Defender, the intern works with the client and attorney to help prepare their case for the court process. With ACRJS, the intern works with clients through the restorative justice process.
• Addison Housing Works (formerly Addison County Community Trust) - Interns helps provide support in three areas: understanding barriers and developing a plan to establish on-site affordable child care for an AHW housing community, researching options and developing models for promoting accessory dwelling units to increase affordable housing supply, and empowering mobile home park residents to upgrade their homes for efficiency and reduced operating costs.
• P&P research and analysis (when offered) - working with P&P faculty and staff to support current, community-connected research and analysis on economic inequality.

Application

Applications for Addison County internships open in January each year. Check back in January 2026 for information on applying to the 2026 local internship program.

To apply, you’ll complete a Privilege & Poverty Summer Internship Program application on Handshake. P&P will interview applicants and select students for our summer cohort. You will then be matched with a local community partner for your internship based on your interests and learning goals.

National SHECP Internships

Middlebury College is a member institution of the Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the proliferation of poverty studies programs at colleges and universities in the U.S. Since 2005, Middlebury College has participated in the SHECP to support students in summer internships with agencies that seek to work alongside vulnerable populations.

Internships are available to non-graduating Middlebury students and are located in urban and rural settings throughout the United States. Host sites include nationwide nonprofits and governmental agencies addressing issues of poverty in educational, healthcare, legal, housing, social and economic settings.

• Full time, eight-week cohort-model internships include housing and a stipend.
• Participation in the SHECP Opening and Closing Conferences is included.
• Expenses related to conferences and internship participation (e.g., food, housing, internship-related transportation, etc.) are covered by Middlebury College.

The Consortium’s internship program includes eight weeks of summer fieldwork bookended by opening and closing conferences, during which student interns come together with peers from other schools (and with faculty and staff) to critically reflect on their experiences. The closing conference also includes an annual symposium on a topic important to understanding poverty; past symposia have focused on issues like incarceration, childhood literacy, and nutrition.

The Consortium offers other benefits to its member institutions, including the following examples:

• Continuing education workshops for faculty and staff.
• Mechanisms for assessment and improvement of local curricular programs.
• A website for sharing relevant news and information between member institutions.
• A network for sharing the important work being done in poverty studies by staff, faculty, and students at SHECP schools.

Application

Applications for the SHECP National Internships open in December each year. Check back in late 2025 for more information regarding the summer 2026 program!

To apply, you’ll complete a Privilege & Poverty Summer Internship Program application on Handshake. P&P will interview applicants and select students for our summer cohort, identifying those cohort members who would like to pursue the national placements with SHECP. Those students will be invited to complete the SHECP application and proceed with placement through SHECP. 

Connect with Us

For more information about our experiential learning opportunities, and to explore how you might pursue your interest in community-connected, field-based learning, contact Assistant Director Jason Duquette-Hoffman.