Image of an HKS student on a computer.

Summer Internships and Federal Work Study

Summer work-study is a federal program intended to assist U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents seeking summer employment with nonprofit and public agencies by subsidizing the employer for a portion of the cost of the student’s wages. An employer hiring a summer work-study recipient typically pays 37.5% of the employees’ wages, and work-study funds provide the remaining portion of the student's wages. If you are a U.S. citizen or Permanent Resident and plan on working at a U.S. based internship (including an overseas U.S. embassy or military base), you should apply for summer federal work study funding.

We encourage students to arrange for their summer employer to provide the funds necessary to pay the employer portion of a work-study award. However, in the event that an employer simply cannot provide this funding, SIF funds may be used as the employer portion of a student's wages. By incorporating summer work-study, SIF is able to assist more applicants than it otherwise would be able. Therefore, individuals eligible to receive work-study are expected to apply.

SIF awards are normally capped at $2500. With work-study funding, an SIF recipient typically receives an award of approximately $1900 from SIF, and will receive an additional $3100 in work-study funds for a total summer award amount of $5000. As you see, this arrangement benefits both SIF by allowing us to allot funds to a higher number of applicants, and benefits the students, as they receive a larger total amount of funding for the summer than they would if they did not apply for work-study.

Note: Work-study recipients must submit weekly timesheets in order to be paid. Recipients who fail to do this forfeit their earnings -- both the SIF portion and the work-study match.

Please see the Student Financial Services website for more detailed information and work-study application instructions and deadlines.

Print print | Email email