Bonnie Shea (she/her) is the VP of Marketing and Storytelling at Making Waves Education Foundation
Structure, timing, budget, and sample job descriptions to set your student internship program up for success
If you are looking for new ways to build capacity and grow your talent pipeline, internships are an incredible option – whether your company or nonprofit doesn’t have the budget or need to hire a full-time or part-time professional, or you’re navigating AmeriCorps program cuts, or you’re looking to get creative with your staffing model for other reasons.
Having managed more than 20 interns and college student employees, I’ve seen these hands-on learning experiences benefit interns, managers, and entire workplaces.
▪️ For students, internships create access to resume-building experiences that help them grow their confidence, skills, networks, and future job opportunities.
▪️ For employers, internships bring new perspectives, specialized skills, and cost-effective support while creating possible talent pipelines.
Especially in marketing, storytelling, and communications, internships are critical for areas of work like content creation, peer-to-peer marketing, and social media.
Ready to hire an intern and get the support you need, but not sure where to get started? Here is your guide for setting up an internship program and hiring your first intern.
1. Identify the work and scope for your internship opportunity
Yes, you will need a job description to hire an intern, but first: consider what you and your team need with an eye toward what could be delegated to an intern. Look for tasks or projects that:
▪️ Don’t require the level of your role, whether it be skill, judgement, or experience. Internship projects usually need delegation and guidance compared to projects led by full-time employees.
▪️ Save you time in the long run, meaning you can lead the up front training but then can focus on strategic priorities while interns handle day-to-day operational or administrative projects.
▪️ Are important but not urgent and would allow a student time to learn while contributing.
▪️ Have clear deliverables or outcomes within a certain timeframe and don’t need much training or guidance.
▪️ Are actually best suited for a high school or college student. Think: peer-to-peer marketing, content creation, video editing, social media research, and storytelling from a student’s point of view.
Once you’ve figured out what you need and what some concrete and contained categories of work would be, then you can begin to form the job description, the hours, and the number of interns you’ll need.
2. Write a clear and realistic internship job description
Students are more likely to find your internship role and apply when they see job titles and descriptions that match their skills, interests, future career goals – and the job market overall. Keep it focused, structured, and attainable with the following as guidelines.
Avoid jargon in the internship description
Use common industry terms rather than internal jargon. AI tools like ChatGPT can help so your internship is most likely to appear in job search tools and resonate with applicants.
Make the job clear and compelling
Outline three primary responsibilities, the work they’ll do, and the skills they’ll build. Be clear about the responsibilities while also framing in a way so they can see: what’s in it for them?
Be specific about internship timing and projects
Include the duration of the internship, the application deadline, the pay and other benefits, hours per week, and expected outcomes.
Be realistic about job expectations and requirements
For internship qualifications, think realistically of what you need and whether the role could be most accessible (e.g., open to any major, open to applicants without internship experience) or if it needs to be specific to certain majors and certain levels of experience.
Sample job descriptions for marketing internship roles
Click the below sample job descriptions to draw inspiration for internship roles, required qualifications, and preferred qualifications. You could also consider more specialized roles like Writing Intern or Design Intern or Social Media Intern based on your nonprofit’s or company’s needs.
Marketing and Storytelling Intern
About This Internship
Are you interested in getting paid, learning about marketing and storytelling on the job, gaining exposure to the nonprofit and social impact sector, and making a difference in your community? Our Marketing and Storytelling Internship at Making Waves is a paid internship, running from August 19 – December 12, 2025, and offers:
- Paid, hands-on work experience in a supportive and accessible (remote) work environment in the non-profit and marketing fields.
- Exploration and learnings across a range of marketing, storytelling, and administrative projects.
- Career development support and reflections with Making Waves career specialists.
- Exposure to other fields and networking opportunities across Making Waves.
What You’ll Do
The Marketing and Storytelling team at Making Waves is promoting equity by making college and career resources more accessible, building community by celebrating student stories, and driving impact by building brand awareness and engaging new supporters.
As a Marketing and Storytelling Intern, you’ll work on a range of projects – from editing webpages to writing stories to creating social media content to helping put together newsletters. You might create videos, take photos, design materials, or write blogs. You might help compile marketing analytics, perform online research, or proofread communications. This position requires time management, organization, and communication skills to support marketing and storytelling projects.
What We Offer
The Marketing and Storytelling Intern role is a paid, part-time role for current college students located in California.
- Pay: An hourly rate of $18-20. In line with our commitment to equity, fairness, and transparency, we have adopted a no salary negotiation policy. We understand the historical inequities created by salary negotiations and believe in offering a starting salary that is fair and grounded in evidence collected during a clear, competency-aligned hiring process.
- Remote work: This role can be 100% remote. A monthly wi-fi reimbursement is offered to successfully work remotely for the duration of the internship.
- Hourly schedule: The hours of this internship are flexible and could range from 4-12 hours/week based on scheduling and projects, with room for flexibility around college breaks, midterms, and finals. The duration of the internship is August 19 – December 12, 2025.
- Internship credit: This can be used for internship credit depending on your interest and academic program requirements.
Key Responsibilities
Marketing and storytelling
- Support aspects of planning and implementation for branding, marketing, social media, website, and storytelling projects
- Proofread and edit stories, articles, webpages, newsletters, or other materials.
- Perform online research related to websites, social media, swag and promotional items, publications, and designs; compile resources and best practices to inform projects.
- Provide input, feedback, perspectives, and perform testing for design concepts, social media content, stories and articles, video scripts and animations, webpage updates, marketing campaigns, and more.
- Regularly edit webpages, update design templates, organize tasks on the content calendar, and help create newsletters.
- Support website, social media, and digital data collection and analysis.
Special projects
- Special projects are available related to your interests and aspirations based on our current goals and projects, including work in graphic design, social media and content creating, writing, editing, photography, or video production.
- Examples might include interviewing for and writing feature stories, writing blog posts or resource articles; taking and/or editing photos; filming and/or editing videos; creating content for social media; laying out webpages or adding content to webpages; creating graphics and designs for websites and publications; and more.
Administrative support
- Manage administrative tasks such as uploading or downloading files; organizing and labeling photo and video assets; captioning and adding alt text to website or social media images.
- Attend meetings, brainstorm around concepts for projects, provide reviews and input into stories, reports, designs, and social content.
- Support maintenance of websites, portals, and online systems.
- Support process improvement and the creation of guidelines or other resources.
Qualifications
Required
- You are a current college student, located in California
- You are organized and are able to meet deadlines
- You are comfortable and skilled at communicating updates related to projects, going through review and editing processes
- You have good attention to detail and double check your work
- You have experience or are open to working collaboratively with others
- You have a growth mindset and willingness to learn while doing
- You have experience or related skills in, or are majoring in, or are interested in a marketing, communications, writing, business, or multimedia related field
- You have experience using Microsoft word, email communications, and social media
- You relate to and align with Making Waves’ core values: Drive Impact, Promote Equity, Build Community, Do Hard Things, and Learn and Grow.
Preferred
- Currently a part of our Making Waves Education Foundation’s college and career success program
- This internship role is ideal for a person who has not yet had an internship or who has had limited internship experience
- Experience working in an administrative setting, campus or retail job
- Experience using Zoom, working or completing coursework remotely
- Experience with creating content, writing, design, videography, or photography (personal or professional)
- Experience using or willingness to learn Asana, Constant Contact, Adobe, Canva, WordPress, Hootsuite, or other marketing technologies
- Comfortable being on camera or writing for marketing and storytelling content
Multimedia and Video Intern
What You’ll Do
Interns on the Marketing and Storytelling team at Making Waves Education Foundation play a key role as a part of a small team that is promoting equity by making education and employment resources more accessible, building community by celebrating student stories, and driving impact by building brand awareness and engaging new supporters.
We’re looking for a detail-oriented, organized, collaborative, and creative Multimedia and Video Intern to support content creation across our websites, social media, newsletters, and other digital channels. This is a great opportunity to gain hands-on experience in video editing, graphic design, and digital storytelling for social change. You will help create engagement strategies and tactics, create and co-create content that supports program goals, and try out new trends and approaches on social media.
The duration of this spring internship is February 3- June 30, 2026. Applications are due December 19.
As a part of our Making Waves internship program, you will get:
- Paid, hands-on work experience in a supportive work environment in the non-profit and marketing fields.
- Exploration and learnings across a range of marketing, storytelling, multimedia, and administrative projects.
- Career development support and reflections with Making Waves career specialists.
- Exposure to other fields and networking opportunities across Making Waves.
What We Offer
The Multimedia and Video Intern role is a paid, part-time spring internship role for current college students or recent college graduates located in California.
- Pay: An hourly rate of $18-22. In line with our commitment to equity, fairness, and transparency, we have adopted a no salary negotiation policy. We understand the historical inequities created by salary negotiations and believe in offering a starting salary that is fair and grounded in evidence collected during a clear, competency-aligned hiring process.
- Remote or hybrid work: This role can be 100% remote or hybrid (mix of in-person and remote work). A laptop will be provided if needed as well as a $25 monthly wi-fi reimbursement to successfully work remotely for the duration of the internship.
- Hourly schedule: The hours of this internship are flexible and could range from 2-12 hours/week based on scheduling and projects, with room for flexibility around college classes and exams. The duration of the internship is February 3- June 30, 2026. Applications are due December 19.
- Internship credit: This can be used for internship credit depending on your interest and academic program requirements.
Key Responsibilities
Video editing and content creation
- Edit and produce short-form video and visual content, including creating social media clips from existing podcasts and webinars for LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube
- Edit and produce short-form video content for thank you messages for donors and supporters
- Collaborate with interns and fellows and team members with co-creating and/or filming and editing video content that shares college, career, and financial resources or celebrates Making Waves students and alums
- Support the creation of templates or guides for captions, subtitles, name cards, and visual elements within videos
- Regularly upload video files and other multimedia content to internal team sites, YouTube, Instagram, and websites
Graphic design
- Design visual content for newsletters, websites, and social media channels
- Turn written storytelling content into short-form social media content, including for Instagram Reels and Stories
- Update design templates in Canva
- Design and organize visuals in Giphy library
- Update or create infographics, presentation slides, and other graphics
Website and media organization
- Learn content management system for making-waves.org and occasionally work on website projects (e.g., editing existing webpages, adding video files, helping add news stories, etc.)
- Edit and organize photo files for website, social media, newsletters, and print materials
Administrative
- Help organize and update visual asset library (photos, graphics, videos, brand assets) including labeling files, adding captions and alt-text, or organizing files
- Conduct online research into best practices in visual design, branding, and accessibility for digital media
- Collaborate with team members and participate in brainstorming sessions, reviews, and ongoing feedback around content creation and storytelling campaigns
- Provide input, feedback, perspectives, and perform testing for design concepts, social media content, and video scripts and animations
- Support maintenance of social media accounts, websites, portals, and other online systems
- Support process improvement and the creation of resources for future student-generated content and peer-to-peer marketing and storytelling
- As needed, support website, social media, and digital data collection and analysis
Qualifications
Required
- You are located in California and are a current college student, or are between the ages of 18-22, or are a recent college graduate (graduated within last 2 years)
- You are organized and are able to meet deadlines and communicate updates related to projects
- You have good attention to detail and double check your work
- You have experience or related skills in video editing, graphic design, or content creation (personal or professional) and are willing to learn on the job
- You have experience or are open to working collaboratively with others
- You have a growth mindset and willingness to learn while doing
- You relate to and align with Making Waves’ core values: Drive Impact, Promote Equity, Build Community, Do Hard Things, and Learn and Grow.
Preferred
- A student or alum in one of Making Waves’ programs
- Experience working in an administrative setting, campus or retail job
- Experience creating video or visual content for a brand
- Experience using Zoom, working or completing coursework remotely
- Experience using or willingness to learn Asana, Adobe, CapCut, Canva, WordPress, or other marketing technologies
- Comfortable being on camera for marketing and storytelling content
Lead Marketing and Storytelling Intern: Digital and Social Media
What You’ll Do
The Lead Marketing and Storytelling Intern: Social and Digital Media will play a key role as a part of a small team that is promoting equity by making college and career resources more accessible, building community by celebrating student stories, and driving impact by building brand awareness and engaging new supporters.
This position requires strong organization, creativity, and communication skills to support marketing and storytelling projects, specifically working on social media and digital content creation and audience engagement that supports program and development goals. This role is for someone who enjoys staying organized, being creative in following a vision, learning new approaches to social media engagement, and working collaboratively.
You will take a student leadership role in helping create engagement strategy and tactics for student and alumni audiences, particularly on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. You will regularly create content and co-create content with fellow interns and program students and alums. And you will create user-friendly documentation and guidance for future student-generated content and peer-to-peer marketing and storytelling. You will also gain exposure to branding, marketing, storytelling, and social media and multimedia strategy while working across the external affairs team, with other interns, and with program students and alums.
Key Responsibilities
Marketing and Storytelling Projects
- Support aspects of planning and implementation for team projects including branding, marketing campaigns, social media strategy and content creation, websites and other digital communications, photography, and videography.
- Perform online research related to websites, social media, promotional items, publications, and designs; compile resources and best practices to inform projects.
- Proofread and edit stories, articles, webpages, newsletters, or other materials.
- Provide input, feedback, perspectives, and perform testing for design concepts, social media content, stories and articles, video scripts and animations, webpage updates, marketing campaigns, and more.
Digital and Social Media Content Creation
- With support from the VP of Marketing and Storytelling, draft an engagement strategy document with high-level goals, tactics, and guidelines for college and career content creation and peer-to-peer marketing efforts for student-facing social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
- With support from the VP of Marketing and Storytelling, facilitate focus groups with students to assess and improve Wave-Maker engagement on social media and digital channels.
- With overall direction, create and edit photos, videos, designs, and other visual content for social media, websites, newsletters, donor communications, and other channels, regularly being on camera.
- Coordinate and outreach with interns, students, alums, and team members to co-create stories, videos, and other visual or storytelling content.
- Draft video scripts, draft social media posts, captions, and visuals.
- Map out subtasks and provide project updates and communication in project management software.
- Coordinate drafts, reviews, approvals, and accurately tracking and incorporating feedback.
- Manage timing to meet deadlines, provide status updates, and go through different iterations.
- Ensure best practices in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in content creation.
- Support social media and digital analytics and analysis.
Administrative Support
- Manage administrative tasks such as uploading or downloading files; organizing and labeling photos and videos; curating folders of photos for projects; captioning and adding alt text to website or social media images.
- Attend meetings, brainstorm around concepts for projects, provide reviews and input into marketing projects, including stories, reports, designs, and social content.
- Support maintenance of social media accounts, websites, portals, and other online systems.
- Support process improvement and the creation of guidelines or other resources for future student-generated content and peer-to-peer marketing and storytelling.
Qualifications
- You are a current college student, located in California
- You are majoring in, are interested in, have experience or related skills in a marketing, communications, writing, a multimedia related field
- You have experience using Microsoft word, email communications, and social media
- You have experience working collaboratively with others and co-creating content
- You have experience going through reviews and approvals and accurately tracking rounds of feedback
- You have strong attention to detail and double check your work
- You are organized and meet deadlines and communicate updates related to projects
- Experience working in an administrative setting or campus or retail job
- Experience using Zoom or working or completing coursework remotely
- Experience with creating content, writing, design, videography, video editing, or photography (personal or professional)
Physical Requirements
- Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
- Ability to take and edit photos and videos around your campus and surroundings
More tips to keep in mind around internship titles and pay
▪️ Aim for paid internships. Compensating interns creates more equitable access and attracts stronger candidates. There is research showing the benefits to both students and employers when internships are paid. Offer the opportunity for the internship to count towards university course credits if applicable.
▪️ Align with industry titles. Realistic, appealing job titles mean students will find your internship. Consider industry internship titles and popular career paths of students at colleges and universities near you. Again, AI tools like ChatGPT can help here.
▪️ Reach out for support! At Making Waves, we’re all about creating more internship opportunities, so let us know in the brief form below if you’d like support with internship roles, job descriptions, recruitment, and more.
3. Plan the structure and timing for your internship program
Here are a few common questions I often get asked around the structure and timing with starting internship programs.
What are the internship seasons?
Try to plan your internships in terms of the existing internship job market as well as the academic calendar: summer, fall, winter, spring. According to Handshake, the majority of internships start in September, January, and June.
How long should the internship go?
You can always start with hiring an intern for one term or semester and then invite them to stay on for the following term or semester instead of overcommitting.
How many hours should the internship be?
Offer the number of hours per week that works for your budget and for your job description. Some internships can be as low as a few hours a week. Co-create a consistent, predictable schedule that works around your interns class schedule and works well within your business hours or project schedule.
What if I don’t have time for weekly check-ins with interns?
Micro-internships or project-based internships are another great option if you’re interested in the structure (clear job description, clear outcomes) without needing to be tied to the seasonable or weekly schedule. If you have a 20-40-hour project that could use intern support and can be done off-hours, then micro-internships could work well.
4. Partner with your human resources or people and culture teams
Your HR, operations, talent, or people and culture teams are your best thought partners when developing internship programs. Partner with them early and often around brainstorming, support, and approvals for everything from recruiting and hiring to onboarding and offboarding.
For internship programs, make the most of resources your HR team offers for hiring full-time employees – like job description templates and postings, simulations for interviews, scorecards for interviews, and thought partnership for hiring and management decisions.
5. Be prepared and intentional with internship trainings
An intentional onboarding process gets an intern excited to work with your team, makes expectations clear, and saves time in the long run. Here are some items to think about as you welcome and train your intern.
Create space for community building, social capital, and networking
Internship managers can set up brief meet-and-greet and welcome meetings for interns with others across the organization, especially if your intern will be working remotely.
Provide an overview of the organization
Provide a short orientation so the intern knows your company or nonprofit’s mission, vision, core values, org chart, and strategic priorities.
Provide access to tools and systems
Think ahead on what your intern will need access to and carve out time to review software or technology they will need to use.
Be intentional with your time
Spend time on trainings that will help interns be most productive (e.g., one website training could lead to 30+ website edits over a term) and avoid trainings that might be time-intensive but won’t be used in many projects (e.g., training on email marketing but interns don’t work frequently enough to support weekly email marketing).
Maintain ongoing communication
Be clear on your expectations for communications, meetings, and project management – and set up regular check points so interns have support along the way.
6. Create a supportive learning environment
Internships are learning experiences for both the student and employer sides. Here are ways to build opportunities for feedback and growth.
Co-create internship goals
Co-create goals for the internship and revisit them mid-way. Consider situational leadership to meet interns where they are to support their growth. Remember, interns are not full-time employees; for example, this might be their first time setting professional goals or working on marketing projects for an organization.
Give space for ideas from interns
Be clear on what your preferences, traditions, and requirements are and provide space for brainstorming and ideas when it makes sense for project requirements, especially if you’re looking for a new approach or style.
Stay in communication
Especially if it’s a remote internship role, encourage questions and celebrate progress. Whenever possible, provide ways for interns to build community – whether through coffee chats, team meetings, or connecting with other interns or staff.
Feedback is everything
Offer specific feedback during and after projects (e.g., share specifics on why an intern project was completed really well). Share insight into your decision-making process or into why certain adjustments might need to be made. Consider going through a two-way review process so you can also get feedback.
Internships can be a win-win for employers and students when designed with structure, intention, and balance. Start small and use each experience as a learning opportunity to refine your approach based on your organization’s goals.
Need support with hiring an intern?
Let’s set up a time to chat about making internships work for you and your company or organization!
