After a successful pilot last year, Mercy Corps is expanding its internship program, which partners with historically Black colleges and universities and offers paid placements to students from various academic backgrounds.
The organization had been looking for ways to strengthen and build out its global internship program, Kristine Wilson, Mercy Corps’ talent and intern program manager, told Devex. There were already some HBCU students among the intern cohort, but there was also an opportunity to work more closely with these institutions and “deliberately give Black students in the United States opportunities to break into international development.”
While the initial launch was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement propelled the program. “[As an organization] we really [felt], even if these have to be remote … it was really important ... to stand up and launch the [program],” Wilson said.