Bowdoin summer fellows pursue research in every liberal arts discipline, or intern for a range of nonprofits, businesses, and public service organizations. Photo from the Schiller Coastal Studies Center.
It’s not easy for college students to work for no pay. And sometimes the best internships—the most prestigious, stimulating, or educational—don’t come with a stipend.
Bowdoin College has over the years addressed this issue by increasing the number of fellowships and grants it offers to students, on a competitive basis, to ensure they can pursue the summer opportunities they want without worrying about money.
This summer, for instance, more than 200 students have institutional fellowships from Bowdoin. Some of these grants support environmental or community-service internships with nonprofits. The majority allow students to devote themselves to research that will lay the foundation for senior-year honors projects. A number of fellows are working in science labs, collaborating with faculty on larger research endeavors, while others are tucked away in Bowdoin’s library, following a trail of sources to address a question no one has yet answered.
Additionally, seventy-eight students this summer were awarded grants from Bowdoin’s funded internship program, which provides them with a generous stipend to live on while they pursue internships or projects of their choice. This year, the group includes a student who is building a new aquaculture farm at Bowdoin and a student interning with a state police homicide unit in Massachusetts.
While many of these fellows and funded interns stay local (270 Bowdoin students are on campus this summer), others take off to live and work around the country and world.
See this summer’s list of fellowship projects.
