UW–Madison’s Matthew Wolfgram and Vivien Ahrens are the authors of a new paper published in the Journal of Education and Work that is titled, “ ‘One internship, two internships, three internships … more!’: exploring the culture of the multiple internship economy.”
Wolfgram is the assistant director and an anthropologist of education at the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT), housed in the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Ahrens is a project assistant at CCWT and a PhD student in civil society and community research at UW–Madison.
An abstract for the paper explains that while internships are increasingly promoted and often encouraged to improve students’ post-graduation employment outcomes, there is a lack of research on the sociocultural contexts associated with having multiple internships.
The authors present findings about the “culture” surrounding multiple internship participation, drawing on results from focus groups and interviews with students and educators at five colleges in the United States. The evidence, they say, is that for many students having multiple internships represents “a linear, progressive, goal-oriented cultural project to accumulate a marketable self” and to provide “evidence of skills and experiences, of persevering through obstacles, and of ‘hustle’ and a ‘do what it takes’ attitude” they can use to navigate competitive gatekeeping encounters such as job interviews.
To learn more, check out the full paper at tandfonline.com.