Community Impact and Reciprocal Investment
Meaningful community investment is central to the SHECP Summer Internship. Interns commit to truly living in and serving their summer city, and this summer, 75 students contributed eight weeks of full-time, hands-on anti-poverty work to their communities. Across 14 cities, interns spent an average of 2,625 hours per week investing in the community through their placements, totaling 21,000+ hours of service from June to August.
The SHECP Summer Internship program is what it is because of the partnerships with nonprofits in each cohort city. This year, 61 partner organizations provided mentorship and guidance as students learned and served, leading them through the joys and messes of working in a community. Many of SHECP’s partner organizations have hosted interns since the founding of the program 29 years ago; these deep community relationships, going beyond individual partnerships, drive lasting impact and reciprocal investment between interns and communities. As Julie Wade, SHECP Board Member and Executive Director of Tharros Place, shared in the Savannah Business Journal spotlight of the Savannah cohort, “It is our hope the experience will be transformational both for the students and for Savannah.” Click here to read the full story in the Savannah Business Journal >>
SHECP is equally proud each year to expand our impact in new places and old. This summer, Waco, TX became the newest SHECP cohort city, hosting five interns across four nonprofit organizations. The Waco Interns worked to support community development, with survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault, and in the legal field. Across all cohort locations, SHECP partnered with 9 new community organizations.
As community needs evolve, SHECP’s internship positions change accordingly, to ensure interns are best supporting the community in which they serve. Sometimes this looks like working with a partner organization to redesign an existing partnership, and in other instances, partners add internship positions in additional departments of the organization, or even request a second intern to supplement the work happening within the existing SHECP partnership parameters. In all cases, the 13 new positions added this summer contributed to the substantive support across cohort locations.
In Louisville, KY, four students participated in the EngageKY program concurrently with their SHECP internships. Over the course of the summer, they earned a total of $6,260.32 in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards while contributing an incredible 1303.25 volunteer service hours through SHECP.
SHECP is grateful to the 2026 partner agencies for their steadfast collaboration in the mission to prepare students for a lifetime of civic and professional efforts to diminish poverty and enhance human capability. It is SHECP’s goal to show up for communities in the same way they have shown up for the internship program year after year!
Interested in learning more about hosting an intern? Contact us at internshipdirector@shepherdconsortium.org to learn more about becoming a community partner, or check out the "Host an Intern" page on the SHECP website.
