Press Release: 8/12/2025
Bunker Hill’s Learn and Earn program creates internships that offer real opportunities
Alyssa Haywoode
AUGUST 12, 2025
Learn and Earn’s staff members
Interns play an important role at Strategies for Children, and one of our best sources of interns is Bunker Hill Community College’s Learn and Earn program.
Learn and Earn is a compelling example of how creative, thoughtfully structured, and enriching internships can be.
“In the Learn and Earn program, which started in 2012, we partner with companies and organizations, like Strategies for Children, to create internships specifically for Bunker Hill students,” Teresa Lefebvre explains. She’s the director of Bunker Hill’s Office of Internships and Career Development. “Our mission is to connect what’s going on in the classroom to a real world job, especially for students who are also working, taking care of families, or managing other commitments.”
Dedicated Learn and Earn internship coordinators recruit students, which Lefebvre sees as a win/win.
“The employer doesn’t have to expend recruitment resources, and because we know our students—we’re already working with them on career development—they feel comfortable coming to us.”
(BHCC also has a traditional internship program that lets students find their own placements, which the college vets.)
What makes an internship successful? Lefebvre says it’s the opportunity to have a concrete, direct impact on the world. Pointing to nonprofit organizations like Strategies, she says:
“The social justice organizations tend to be small but mighty organizations that have a lot of work on their plate. This provides students with a couple of things: one they’re doing a lot of their own research and writing, which means they’re doing meaningful work; and two, they’re seeing how organizations are adapting in real time to the world around them. It’s not theoretical; it’s we’re drafting a paper to influence legislation that will impact students’ communities. One example is Camille RoquePena, who was a new parent, working directly on issues that impacted her.”
Similarly, for Cheyanne Nichter, who earned a BHCC associate’s degree in early childhood development, the internship was a chance to explore “how advocacy organizations can capitalize on digital resources to reach more deeply into the community.”
In addition to Strategies, employer partners include or have included: 826 Boston, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston Housing Authority, the Broad Institute, Chelsea Housing Authority, Eaton Vance Investment, Fidelity Investments, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Massachusetts Trial Courts, MGH Center for Cancer Research, Raytheon, and State Street Bank. Today there are 45 employers who provide internships for one hundred students a year.
“We match the skills employers seek directly with the coursework that Bunker Hill offers. The targeted message to students is: if you’ve taken this course, you most likely have the skills that an employer is looking for. This gives students the confidence to apply for these internships, and we support them with resume development and mock interviews.”
Learn and Earn has also been growing.
“It’s an exciting time in our office. We have completely redeveloped our curriculum, and we’ve increased internship access into many more programs, including English, creative writing, music, and studio art. In this coming year, we want to expand into psychology, history, and sociology to involve more social science students. We’re looking for new employer partners and we want to expand partnerships with the employers we already work with.”
Philanthropy is also part of the equation. BHCC received a Humanities to Career grant from The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. The foundation’s goal is “prioritizing community colleges to advance humanities education.”
Lefebvre says there’s a renewed focus on connecting community college students to rich internship experiences.
“It keeps them motivated. Internships serve as a gateway into their field of study, often leading to job opportunities or affirming their career path, which encourages them to continue their education toward a bachelor’s degree or higher. For the spring 2025 semester, we had just over a 40% conversion rate of interns who transitioned to either part-time or full-time work with their employers. We have corporate partners who look at the internship as an extended interview.”
What makes an employer a good Learn & Earn partner? Lefebvre says it’s having a supervisor who is an expert in their field and offering students engaging projects to work on.
“We’re looking for partners who are invested in students as interns and invested in their long-term goals. Our partners become part of our students’ networks. It’s a really special community.”
To learn more about interns at Strategies for Children, contact Titus DosRemedios, our deputy director, at tdosremedios@strategiesforchildren.org. To learn more about becoming a Learn & Earn employer partner, contact internships@bhcc.edu.