Micro Internships, Major Impact

Nevaeh Wright keeps a busy schedule. A junior majoring in social welfare at UW Tacoma, she’s often seen on campus serving as a student ambassador, giving tours to prospective students and welcoming visitors at the university’s welcome center.

She is also the mother of a 15-month-old daughter, who she says inspires her to keep moving forward in her education.

“I put a lot of time and effort into school because my daughter is my biggest driving factor,” she says, noting that earning her degree will equip her to create a stronger future for them both.

Between classes, work and family, Wright regularly connects with her peers in UW Tacoma’s Office of First Gen. Here, she learned about the Internship Prep Cohort — a chance to gain real-world experience and take the next step in her college journey.

Through the program, students are matched with local employers and campus departments for a four-week micro-internship, an experience they can add to their resumes and use as a springboard to longer internships or full-time employment.

Along the way, they complete activities that build their career readiness, from online self-assessments to learning how to complete new-hire paperwork and submitting weekly surveys that encourage them to reflect on what they’ve learned.

Modeled after Parker Dewey’s micro-internship platform, the program was developed in response to campus surveys showing that many UW Tacoma students were not participating in these experiences. Students expressed a need for more flexible, less time-intensive opportunities that are easier to balance with other life responsibilities.

“We saw students weren’t seeking opportunities, and there were a multitude of factors for that,” says Eric Hilldorfer, Employer Relations Manager at UW Tacoma Career Development & Education. “Our students already have part-time jobs or full-time jobs. They might be in a career transition. They’re balancing family, life and everything else.”

Research from the national organization FirstGen Forward shows that first-generation students are less likely than their peers to participate in paid internships. With more than half (52%) of UW Tacoma undergraduates being the first in their families to pursue higher education, the need for a program to address this gap was especially critical.

Dominic Jay “DJ” Leon Guerrero Crisostomo, assistant director for UW Tacoma’s Office of First Gen, says the students he works with recognize the value of career-preparation opportunities — they just need someone encouraging them to pursue them.

“For a student who has never had an internship or a job, searching for these experiences can be overwhelming,” Crisostomo says. “This hands-on experience is so valuable. Their self-confidence and self-efficacy grow immensely, even in this short amount of time.”

Crisostomo says these experiences also give students a sense of purpose and belonging — key components of the college experience, especially for those who are the first in their families to attend college.

Since its launch in 2024, the Internship Prep Cohort has placed approximately 75 undergraduates with employers to work on short-term projects that require just 20 hours to complete. Through a generous grant from KeyBank, each student receives a $300 stipend in recognition of their time and contributions.

For Wright, this support made it possible to balance her coursework and student employment with her responsibilities as a parent. She completed a micro-internship with the Tacoma Urban League, a local nonprofit and civil rights advocacy organization.

Over the four-week experience, Wright conducted market research and developed a communications plan for the Urban League’s housing and education programs. She says the experience helped her better understand the environmental factors that influence the people she hopes to serve in her future social work career.

“Tacoma Urban League really opened my eyes to understanding that social work is multifaceted,” Wright said. “You have to understand the people you’re working with.”

The Tacoma Urban League is a small nonprofit with three in-house team members. Arlicia Ford, the organization’s program manager, recognized that college students are excellent researchers, skilled at following trends and capable of seeing a project through from start to finish. It was these skills that Ford says she wanted to tap into for this project.

“(The students) did an amazing job of building out all of that research for the target audiences for our main programs and developing a strategy for how we can communicate with those target audiences,” Ford said.

The plans Wright and her fellow intern created were later shared with the Tacoma Urban League’s Board of Directors and will help guide the organization’s outreach and marketing activities for future programs.

“My experience at the Tacoma Urban League really gave me affirmation that I want to work with the back end of things, whether in policy or something like that,” Wright said. “I feel like the framework is important so those who are (working) on the micro level of social work are able to do their job effectively. I feel like that starts off with policy.”

Now, as Wright gets ready to start her practicum — an in-the-field learning experience required for her major — she says her month at the Tacoma Urban League gave her more confidence in her abilities and a clearer sense of how she can grow her skills to make a meaningful difference for people in the community.

Student applications for the Summer 2026 Internship Prep Cohort are open through May 18, 2026. Employers interested in hosting a student for a micro-internship can apply here.