Become a Community Partner

The internship placement ranges from 20 to 40 hours per week,  but may be adjusted based on both student and community partner needs, on a schedule agreed upon by the student. Due to their course obligations, we ask that you not schedule work for the students on the afternoons of their required EARTH 412 Urban Sustainability course. 

Depending on the availability of qualified students, more than one student may be placed with a single community partner. A separate application is required for each request. Penn State will provide you with the student intern who is best matched with your company or organization to carry out the desired scope of work for your project.

Internships may be paid or unpaid or come with stipends. We expect each community partner to treat our student interns per their own organization’s internship policy. If unpaid, we highly encourage you to provide the student with a minimum $750 stipend, which we supplement with limited fellowship money raised to offset the student’s cost for the summer.

Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center at Penn State staff carefully offer you the best student match based on your scope of work, specific project, and the student’s interests, skills, experience, and expertise. Penn State students come from a variety of programs and majors and/or the Sustainability Leadership minor.

The City Semester manager at the Franco Harris Pittsburgh Center, in collaboration with the Penn State faculty internship coordinator, will address any HR or performance issues identified by the community partner.

In addition to meeting the internship placement requirements, the Penn State City Semester Pittsburgh program expects community partners to:

• respond to the City Semester Pittsburgh manager for a midterm check-in during the semester and/or inform the manager of any HR or performance issues with the student, as necessary
• provide an assessment of the student’s performance in accordance with the internship requirements
• complete a brief post-placement program survey to inform the City Semester program
• attend the end-of-semester virtual student presentations during the last week of placement

The University’s insurance does not extend to cover the student’s actions while the student is working for the community partner. If the community site requires liability insurance, the site needs to inform the student of this requirement as soon as possible so that the student can purchase the required insurance and verify that it was purchased.