Rural Works! Internship Program Achieves High-Impact Student and Community Engagement

The Career Development Center’s mission is to enhance the accessibility of internships and create new opportunities for students.

This summer, Rural Works! has 187 students working for 122 different companies in 54 counties across North Carolina, demonstrating that mission in practice. Student participation is up 27% from last year’s 137, following a trend of continuous growth. For 73% of students in Rural Works!, this will be their first ever internship, and for 51% of companies, this is their first year recruiting through Rural Works!

This success highlights the Career Development Center’s effective strategies and commitment to fostering meaningful connections between students and employers. Rural Works! is about more than just placing students in internships; this program provides tremendous value for North Carolina’s rural employers.

Contempora Fabrics, Inc. in Robeson County shared the impact the program has had on their company: “The Rural Works! program is outstanding. As a small business in a very rural county, we would never have a chance to hire the caliber of interns that we’ve been able to recruit the past four years. Without Rural Works! our internship would likely not exist.”

In Summer 2023, Industry Expansion Solutions conducted an economic impact survey of companies where engineering interns were placed, finding an average economic impact of $184,000 per company. This research also discovered that participating as a Rural Works! employer allowed for the continuation or creation of 84 jobs across the 56 companies surveyed.

The final piece of Rural Works! impact is with our communities in North Carolina. Rural Works! interns are asked to complete eight hours of community engagement so that their learning experience goes beyond career development and includes holistic personal development. At the student orientation, interns were challenged to think about how they can grow industry in North Carolina while also supporting their local communities.

Rural Works! was created in 2018 to support NC State’s commitment to social, economic, and technological development across North Carolina. Employment in rural North Carolina was a key issue identified by the Economic Research Service, as rural companies struggle to compete with larger, urban-based employers that can provide more attractive and lucrative opportunities.

As a land-grant university, NC State has dedicated itself to increasing opportunity and accessibility to rural employment through Rural Works! internships. RayShaun Williams, a Rural Works! intern from Clinton, NC, will have the opportunity to complete an internship in his hometown with Schindler Escalator this summer.

RayShaun’s academic and technical expertise earned him a Mechanical Engineering internship, but he saw beyond just the work opportunity: “I get to give back to my community by being an example of how you can be a young, Black man at 19 years old, as a freshman, and not only be an engineer but also make a change in your community.”

RayShaun will be supervised by Kaleb Jessup, a former Rural Works! intern also native to Clinton who interned with Schindler for 3 years before being hired full time. For more information on Rural Works!, please visit careers.dasa.ncsu.edu/about-rural-works or contact the Rural Outreach Coordinator Sam Sanger in the Career Development Center.