The thin line between “success” and “failure” is often nothing more than opportunity. Did someone have the opportunity to become successful?
Sadly, for female professional students — especially those at lesser known universities — those opportunities are sorely lacking. And when those opportunities are presented, they often come with strings attached.
That’s why we created the Internship Bank. We want to provide female professional students from lesser known colleges with the internship opportunities and necessary support structure they need to succeed and thrive in professional life.
In addition to providing professional internships, the Internship Bank connects female interns with female mentors. The mentorship program is designed to accomplish three critical goals:
- Inspire success. By talking to and connecting with successful professional women, students will know that what they are doing is achievable. If they work hard and take advantage of the opportunities presented to them, they can succeed.
- Model success. How is a professional woman supposed to look, act and behave in the workplace? Believe it or not, this is a question that’s still being asked. And many of our students don’t have the role models or life experiences to navigate this social minefield. The Internship Bank’s mentorship program bridges that gap.
- Provide Support. Unfortunately, many workplaces are not safe for women. Sexual harassment is still prevalent in the workplace. And our students need a safe space to discuss and deal with sexual harassment issues, guidance, leadership and a safe work environment. The Internship Bank provides the latter. The mentorship program, at a minimum, provides the former.
The Internship Bank also promotes the various organizations that have made it their mission to make a difference to the lives of women pursuing professional degrees. It is important that the companies as well as the names of individuals behind such organizations get the recognition that they deserve and Internship Bank hopes to ensure this!
To summarize, we at Internship Bank aim to be a platform of positive change and hope that the small ripples of initiative that we are taking today result in the sea changes of tomorrow!