Internships are key to helping students get into the workplace in their chosen fields, and the University of South Carolina’s Career Center and The Carolina Internship Program help students find the perfect match and offer financial assistance during their internship.
The Carolina Internship Program supports students who need to step away from full-time university enrollment to complete a work experience. Students also can access stipends from the South Carolina Internship Program of up to $3,000 to help cover living expenses if they are in an internship in South Carolina that is in a high-demand field such as: life sciences, manufacturing and insurance industries.
Students can find their best-match internship through the Career Center. Make an appointment to meet with a career coach to learn how to find the best internship for your interests and major.
Stephon Porter is the manager for high impact practices and experiential education initiatives at the Career Center. His advice to students is to take advantage of the Career Center and all their events.
“One of the things we always say, though, is come early and come often, because while internships typically do have a cycle when they're around hiring deadlines, we also want them to continuously come because we don't want students to miss out on that opportunity,” Porter says. “We provide them with the tools they need to find those opportunities.”
However, many of those opportunities come through individual colleges.
Students at the College of Information and Communications, for example, are working with a Charleston-based newspaper company on a course called “The Post and Courier Experience,” students in the hospitality, retail and sport management school head to Augusta, Georgia, each spring to work at the esteemed Masters golf tournament and engineering students work collaboratively with The Nuclear Co.
Senior political science major and mass communications minor, Molly Griffin, will work the Masters this spring for the fourth consecutive year. Her role at the tournament is as a cashier at the Amen Corner concessions stand.
Working in hospitality and in particular at the Masters gave her the notion “of ‘deliver plus one’ in everything you do. Meaning, always give the 101% and go the extra mile, whether it is to make someone else’s day or do better for yourself.”
Griffin says the experience has been life-changing professionally and personally.
“I took away many life lessons, leadership experiences, new connections and multiple lifelong friendships from this experience,” she says. “I was able to correlate different experiences and be able to use them in professional settings throughout different interviews and workplaces revolving around teamwork and maintaining a professional manner.
“I would not be the person I am today without the experience.”
Over at the journalism school, Mollie Naugle, a senior journalism student, took part in the first semester of the Post and Courier Experience class. She says she applied last spring for a spot in the course, which is overseen by journalism instructor Nina Brook.
Naugle says that working in a real newsroom has allowed her to gain hands-on experience in her desired field. She conducts interviews, researches and writes articles under the guidance of the Post and Courier’s team of reporters.
“Doing this has allowed me to apply what I’ve learned in a traditional classroom setting to real-world scenarios. I feel like it’s really prepared me for a career in journalism after graduation,” Naugle says. “Interning in the newsroom has affirmed my love for journalism and desire to pursue it after graduation. I’ve been able to tell stories about the Columbia community that I’m really proud of, while also growing and becoming more confident in my skills as a journalist.”
The Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing is partnering with industry leader The Nuclear Co. to create pathways for students to be interns and join the workforce and for scientific innovation.
“The biggest contribution our engagement will have is in workforce development,” says Travis Knight, chair of the mechanical engineering department and founder of the university’s nuclear engineering program.
Knight says the collaboration will benefit students looking for work and will keep the nation’s nuclear power providers supplied with the workers they need.
Drew Hanson works as a research assistant for Knight while he pursues his master’s in nuclear engineering. He graduated from USC in 2025 with a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering and worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a nuclear materials science intern and was a materials science intern at Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina.
He says that getting to have real-world experience in the field prior to graduation was a difference-maker for him professionally.
“During the two internships, I gained even more hands-on lab experience and broadened my horizons with the fields I worked in,” Hanson says. “In my desired career field of nuclear engineering, there are essentially two main routes: experimental and computational. USC has helped me become proficient in computational skills and my internships have helped me gain experience in experimental techniques.”
For more information on internship opportunities, visit the Career Center, speak with a professor or explore your major’s website at sc.edu.