When looking for summer internships, students tend to shy away from positions with nonprofit organizations. Thanks to a new resource from the Career Center, students can make some profits working at non-profits.

“NEXUS: Connecting Creighton Students to the Nonprofit Community” is a new program designed to help Creighton students obtain paid internships at nonprofit companies. The program is managed by the Career Center and Creighton Center for Service and Justice and funded by Cardoner.

“We have enough Cardoner funding to do 25 of these [internships] for [each of] the next three years,” said Jim Bretl, director of the Career Center.

The idea is that each intern would be paid roughly $10 per hour, with half of it being paid by the agency and the other half paid by NEXUS. Bretl said that agencies have been willing to sign on with NEXUS.

“We made a few phone calls, and in a week we have seven agencies and eight internships,” he said.

Bretl said he hopes the program teaches students that nonprofit companies and agencies are OK places to start careers and every bit as good as internships at major companies. He also said he likes using the funding to help the students. “What we really like about it is we’re putting money right in the pocket of our Creighton students,” he said.

The deadline to apply for an internship is Monday. Applications should be turned in to Lisa Brockhoff, associate director of the Career Center. For more information about the seven agencies that are offering internships, visit www.creighton.edu/careercenter and click on the “NEXUS Internship Descriptions – Summer, 2008” link.