The Breakthrough Internship Network

An internship is an invaluable experience for any college student – an opportunity to gain professional experience, explore potential careers, and build a professional network. In fact, internships and work experience are valued more than all other attributes, such as major and GPA, when hiring a recent graduate. However, many internships are out of reach for students from low-income communities, who cannot afford to accept unpaid positions.

The Breakthrough Internship Network (formally Future Focus) arranges full-time, paid, professional internships for first-generation college students from low-income communities. The Network connects these students to paid internships, expanding their opportunities while providing host companies with exceptionally motivated and hardworking interns from diverse backgrounds. A full-time, paid summer internship will help these college students pay for their education and lay the foundation for successful careers after graduation.

Since its inception in 2011, The Breakthrough Internship Network has placed over 500 interns with 100+ Austin companies.

Host Company Responsibilities

Host companies interview the student(s) and select the intern(s) who will make the best contribution to their company.  In order to create the most beneficial internship experience for both host companies and interns, we ask host companies to:

• Provide a full-time internship, 29-40 hours per week, 8-12 weeks over the summer
• Pay each intern $15-$25 an hour
• Provide meaningful work and regular feedback to intern
• Assign a manager to supervise and mentor intern
• Communicate regularly with the Program Manager
• Allow intern to attend training workshops during the summer
• Attend and participate in the Presentations of Learning – End of Summer event
• Complete the end of summer host company survey

 

For more information, contact Kate Garrett at kate@breakthroughctx.org.

ABC Home & Commerical Services

Accenture

Aceable

Alchemy Software Development

American Bank of Commerce

American Constructors

Andrew Harper

AT&T

Baker Botts LLP

Balcones Resources

Bazaarvoice

Ben Barnes Group

Birds Barbershop

Blackbaud

Bluepoint Games

Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Breakthrough Central Texas

Bridgepoint Consulting

Brigham Resources

Building Team Solutions

Castle Hill Partners

Center for Generational Kinetics

Circuit of the Americas

CML Exploration

Comerica

Compass Learning

CSID

Deep Eddy Vodka

Dell Technologies

DLA Piper LLP

Durbin Bennett l Private Wealth Management

Farmers Insurance

Fish & Richardson

Fleming & Conway Allstate Agency

FloSports

Forestar Group

George Brothers Kincaid & Horton LLP

Grande Communications

Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody

Green Mountain Energy Company

GSD&M

Headspring

Hellfire Games

Hill+Knowlton Strategies

HomeAway

Holtzman

Holt Engineering

HPI Real Estate & Investments

IBM

Jones Energy

Kasasa

Kendra Scott

KIPP Austin Public Schools

KLRU-TV

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Lifesize

Live Oak-Gottesman

Luminex Corporation

Mattersight

MI7

Nanohmics

Nolan Ryan Foundation

Noonday Collection

NXP Semiconductors

Onit

Onramp

Packet Design

Parker Phoenix PR

PDS Energy

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Pipeline Success

Pivot3

Plains Capital Bank

Powell Ebert & Smolik PC

PPD