$75,000 Grant Awarded to CVEDC for a Norwich University Internship Cohort

4/3/24

Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation (CVEDC) announces today that it has been awarded $75,000 through the Vermont Department of Labor’s Work Based Learning & Training Grant to offer a 2024 internship program in coordination with Norwich University.

The grant funding will be used to:

·       Supplement intern wages at $20.00 per hour up to 120 hours.

·       Pay gas mileage reimbursement to and from internship sites up to $300.

The grant is set up to serve eighty students at Norwich University, ten this Summer and seventy in the Fall.

Students will be paired with employers in CVEDC’s support region of Washington and Orange Counties (in Orange, the towns of Williamstown, Washington, and Orange).  Programming provided by Norwich and CVEDC will support employers with seeking, onboarding, and working with interns.  Additionally, programming will be provided to support interns as they work with local employers.

This model of cohort-based, wage-subsidized regional internship programming was piloted by CVEDC and UVM in the summer of 2023 with funding from the Patrick Leahy Rural Institute.  CVEDC and Norwich have a long history of collaborating on different models to unite students with regional employers for internships, and are grateful that this funding brings and opportunity to expand on the 2023 pilot.

“In the summer of 2023, we paired 12 interns with local employers and learned a great deal about ways we can support both students and employers through a guided internship program. Our findings included specific ways we can support employers considering an intern for the first time, as well as topics interns are interested in learning more about during their internship.  Norwich University is an ideal partner to expand this program as their most popular majors are well-aligned with open jobs in our community,” says Melissa Bounty, Executive Director of Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation.

More information about the program will be published on CVEDC’s website, www.centralvermont.org, including information about how employers and potential interns can apply to participate.