As you prepare for your summer experience, it is important to explore what funding and award opportunities might be available to you that can help provide financial support for your experience. In this article, we walk through ways to find funding and awards for summer opportunities including internships and other experiential career experiences, particularly at a time when these resources are more limited and can be difficult to find.
You can find funding and grant opportunities through programming, databases, and conversations with campus offices and faculty and staff within your major department(s) and certificate programs. You can also connect with alumni via the Duke Alumni Directory to identify what funding opportunities they recommend you pursue, or they are pursuing or have pursued in your industry of interest. Additionally, you can search funding and grant opportunities on Career Hub.
See below for a list of specific programs and resources where you can find funding and award opportunities.
Career Center Internship Funding Program for Undergraduate Students
The Duke Career Center’s Internship Funding Program for Undergraduate Students is a summer program designed to help support Duke students in their educational pursuits while participating in internships within their related areas of study.
Dewitt Wallace Center (internship and research grant funding)
With generous support from the Susan Tifft Internship Fund, The Lorber Fund, the McCarthy Family Internship Fund, the Hughes Family Fund, and many other alumni donors, the DeWitt Wallace Center is able to provide funding grants for Duke students pursuing internship opportunities in journalism or media organizations.
Duke Energy Initiative Internship Program
The Energy Internship Program connects Duke students from all majors, backgrounds, and degree programs to summer internship opportunities across the energy sector, including at start-ups, utilities, renewable energy developers, large firms, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The fund also provides support for summer research projects focused on energy access or energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries.
DukeEngage
DukeEngage is an eight-week immersive summer program that places Duke students in global communities addressing critical social issues.
Global Health Institute Student Research Training (SRT) Program
The Student Research Training Program (SRT) is an intensive experiential learning program that engages second-year and third-year undergraduate students in the development, implementation, and assessment of a community-based project.
Stanback Fellowship Program
The Stanback Fellowship Program provides students with significant project-based learning experiences in energy, conservation, advocacy, policy, research and applied resource management.
The Hart Leadership Program (experiential learning programs)
The Hart Leadership Program challenges students to practice the art of leadership in public life. Through academic courses, experiential learning programs, community-based research, and co-curricular initiatives, students develop their own frameworks for leadership and work alongside others toward a common purpose.
Duke Summer Experiences (searchable database)
The Duke Summer Experience database is easily searchable and directs users back to the individual program websites for more details. It includes filters for stipends where you can find grants, fellowships, and internship programs.
Office of University Scholars and Fellows (NCS scholarship search tool)
The Nationally Competitive Scholarship (NCS) search tool includes scholarships for every discipline, nationality, area of the world, and type of study! Take some time to explore the options and reach out to an NCS advisor if you need help. NCS advisors are most familiar with the opportunities listed on this site but can give general advice about many more.
Office for Research and Innovation (funding database)
The Office for Research & Innovation provides this extensive, on-line database of internal and external funding opportunities as a resource for the entire Duke University research community. This database lists over 10,000 grants and fellowships.
Pivot-RP Database
Pivot is a large external global funding database that includes filters for undergraduate students.
Undergraduate Research Support Office (opportunities database)
The Undergraduate Research Support Office (URS) database contains information on URS-administered programs as well as opportunities in the areas of Biological Sciences, Creative Arts, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Physical & Quantitative Sciences, Programming, and Social Sciences. Additionally, it includes opportunities outside of Duke.
You can further discuss and explore funding and awards in a Career Center appointment.
This article references information from the Career Center resource, “Funding Opportunities at Duke.”
