Northwestern Career Advancement - Summer Internship Grant Program (SIGP)
The Summer Internship Grant Program was established to support Northwestern students participating in unpaid internships. A primary focus is as a funding source for undergraduate Northwestern students who have accepted (or planning on securing) an unpaid internship or summer experience in an industry that traditionally does not pay their interns. However, it is also a career development program to enrich important learning opportunities as students engage in the summer experiences.
Since 2007, the Summer Internship Grant Program has made it possible for undergraduate students to pursue unpaid internships. In 2020, 415 Northwestern students received grants of $3000 to participate in unpaid summer experiences.
Career Development Program
In addition to receiving a grant for living and travel expenses accrued during the summer of an unpaid experience, students are required to participate in career development activities that include: LinkedIn professionalism and SIGP virtual community participation, informational interviews, networking, midway review, and donor appreciation.
For any questions or concerns, please contact:
Eleni Vartelas
Assistant Director | Northwestern Career Advancement
Email: sigp@northwestern.edu
- Award
- Varies
- Scopes
- Career
- Deadline
- 04/06/2021
- Supplemental Questions
- Campus:
- What is your hometown? Please list city and state (and country if outside the United States).
- Permanent Address:
- 1. Permanent Street Address:
- 2. Permanent City:
- 3. Permanent State/Province:
- 4. If you indicated "Other/ Non - U.S. resident" above, please list the country. Please write "N/A" if you are a US resident.
- 5. Permanent Zip Code. Please list "00000" for Non - U.S. residence
- 6. Permanent Country:
- 7. If your country is not listed above, please list it below (write "N/A" if it is listed):
- Have you applied for an appeal with the Office of Financial Aid within the last two months of the academic year (end of Fall quarter/ beginning of Winter Quarter)?
- Are you a student-athlete (this would not include intramural sports)?
- What sport do you play?
- How did you learn about SIGP? Check all that apply:
- If you selected "Other" above, please elaborate. If you did not select "Other", please write "N/A".
- Have you *already* accepted an unpaid summer experience opportunity?
- If you have accepted an unpaid summer experience opportunity, please answer the following (please answer "N/A" to all questions if you have not secured a summer experience):
- 1. What is the location of your summer experience?
- 2. In which industry is this summer experience?
- 3. Name of organization for which you have secured your summer experience.
- 4. Title of your position
- 5. Short two or three sentences that describe the experience.
- If you have *not* accepted an unpaid summer experience, please answer the following:
- 1. In which industry are you working to secure your summer experience? Feel free to be specific with the type of role and location as well.
If you have accepted a summer experience, please write "N/A".
- 1. In which industry are you working to secure your summer experience? Feel free to be specific with the type of role and location as well.
- Please answer the questions below about the location of your summer experience:
- 1. Per University COVID-19 guidelines, SIGP cannot be used for an *in-person* international summer experience unless the recipient holds citizenship in that country. Recipients can use SIGP if they wish to work *remotely* for an organization in a country abroad. Only recipients who are staying or returning to their home countries of citizenship will be permitted to have an in-person summer experience outside of the United States.
- 2. List your home country of citizenship if you will be staying or returning home for your summer experience. (Please put NA if staying in the United States)
- SIGP will support both virtual and in-person summer experiences (in their home countries where students hold citizenship) for this year. Please note: If a SIGP recipient’s employer is requiring in-person work, recipients will have to agree and abide by federal, state, county, and city COVID-19 guidelines for their summer experience.
- Have you applied to SIGP in the past?
- Have you attended an information session?
- Are you planning to live with family/friends during the summer experience you have secured or planning to secure? Please note your answer does not affect funding.
- Are you receiving any money (stipend or hourly wage), housing assistance, or any other form of compensation from the employer to complete the summer experience?
- If you are receiving any form of compensation from your summer experience employer, please answer the questions below (please write "N/A" for each question if you are not receiving anything).
- 1. What is the amount or form of compensation you will be receiving?
- 2. What is this intended to be used for?
- Are you receiving academic credit for the summer experience? Please note, SIGP recipients cannot use SIGP in combination with other credit-granting programs at Northwestern such as Chicago Field Studies, GESI, Engage Chicago, etc.
- If you are receiving academic credit for your summer experience, please answer the following (if you are not receiving academic credit, please write "N/A" for the questions below):
- 1. Through which program/school?
- 2. How much credit will you be receiving?
- Photo Release:
- Thank You Notes:
- The SIGP program strives to relieve the financial burden for students who are pursuing summer experiences in traditionally unpaid industries as well as provide support for students to utilize these career opportunities as learning outcomes paving the path for what will come next in their career development. Keeping this in mind, please answer the following questions in two separate essays labeled “Essay 1” and “Essay 2” respectively.
Please be sure to first write your essays in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the text into the text box in order to assist with spell check and proper grammar usage. This will allow for the SIGP reviewers to more easily read your application.
The combined word count for both Essay 1 and Essay 2 should not exceed 900 words in total.- 1. Essay 1: Describe the organization and summer internship/experience that you have secured or hope to secure this summer. What are you hoping to learn or gain from this experience? (Think about specific skills, networking opportunities, industry experience, etc. Be as specific as possible – this should relate directly to the summer experience. Additionally, if you have applied to multiple opportunities, choose one to focus on for the main part of the essay.) Furthermore, how do you anticipate this experience impacting you or the NU community when you return to campus?
Essay 2: How have your academic studies and extra-curricular activities influenced your interest in pursuing this type of internship? How will this specific summer experience opportunity help you develop your overall academic and career goals/aspirations? - 2. Optional Essay 3: If you have any additional or new financial information that is not reflected on your General Application or in your financial aid package from Northwestern that relates to your summer funding needs, please provide those details as “Essay 3”.
PLEASE WRITE "N/A" IF YOU ARE NOT ANSWERING THIS QUESTION.
- 1. Essay 1: Describe the organization and summer internship/experience that you have secured or hope to secure this summer. What are you hoping to learn or gain from this experience? (Think about specific skills, networking opportunities, industry experience, etc. Be as specific as possible – this should relate directly to the summer experience. Additionally, if you have applied to multiple opportunities, choose one to focus on for the main part of the essay.) Furthermore, how do you anticipate this experience impacting you or the NU community when you return to campus?
- Monetary Budget Outline for Summer Experience (please write "N/A" or "0" next to any expense you do not have):
- 01. Airfare (Round trip):
- 02. Housing:
- 03. Food:
- 04. Local Travel Expenses - (this might be bus or train fares, gas, etc.):
- 05. Other:
- 06. Notes (Please include any other information you would like the committee to know about your expenses for the summer. Please write “NA” if you don’t have any notes to add.)
- 07. Your total budget (Please add up all of your expenses and list them in total below):
- Please upload a copy of your resume as a PDF file using the naming structure “Last Name_First Name_SIGP Resume”.
- Please list any additional summer funding you have applied for at Northwestern (ex: WCAS Grant, Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, etc.):
If you have not applied to any other funds on campus please write “N/A”. - I understand that if I have any additional notes for the SIGP committee to consider, I will email sigp@northwestern.edu directly.
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