The University of Colorado at Boulder 聴 through the Graduate School and the Center for Humanities and the Arts 聴 has received a $10,000 Woodrow Wilson Innovation Award to help establish a new Humanities Internship Program.
The award was one of seven given to university departments and programs in the humanities that use creative approaches to encourage doctoral students to consider jobs in the "real world" outside their schools. CU-Boulder received one of three awards for $10,000, and four universities received $5,000 awards.
"We at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation hope that the projects recognized by the Innovation Awards will serve as models for other institutions," said Robert Weisbuch, the foundation聮s president.
The Humanities Internship Program is designed to broaden the career horizons of humanities doctoral students who traditionally have looked to academia for employment, according to Jeffrey Cox, director of CU-Boulder聮s Center for Humanities and the Arts.
One component of the program is establishing internships with a range of corporations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, Cox said. Sun Microsystems Inc., netLibrary Inc. and Roche Pharmaceutical will be taking interns as part of the program next semester, he said.
A second component of the CU-Boulder program will be to host colloquiums to bring students, employers and faculty members together to conduct job seminars, hear speakers and report on work experiences.
"The colloquium will not only supplement the internship experience but also spread the word to other students that there are viable careers outside the academy," Cox said.
The Humanities Internship Program will begin next semester, which starts on Jan. 18.