Applications are now open for the 2025 Internship Challenge program.
What is the Internship Challenge?
The Internship Challenge is a workforce development program focused on enhancing the talent pipeline for Massachusetts organizations engaged in the life sciences. The program creates hundreds of new paid internships each year for college students and recent graduates interested in life sciences careers. Through an online platform, the program offers employers access to a searchable resume database to help them connect with qualified candidates from across Massachusetts. The program also enables eligible organizations to pay their interns by subsidizing wages up to $9,600 per intern (based on $20 per hour for 12 weeks).
Eligibility and Evaluation
The Internship Challenge connects employers with college students and recent graduates through an online platform and reimburses eligible organizations (companies with 100 or fewer employees in Massachusetts; no more than 250 globally) for intern stipends.
Internships can be part- or full-time and can take place any time during the Program Year, which runs from May 1 through April 30. Candidates submit an online application, which includes their resume and cover letter, to be posted in the MLSC’s application database (candidates do not apply to a particular organization or for a specific position). There is no application deadline since internship placements are rolling, however, funding is allocated to host organizations on a first-come first-served basis.
Intern Eligibility:
1. Must meet at least one of the following:
- Massachusetts resident (proof of residency required)
- Attend an accredited college or university located in Massachusetts (enrollment verification required)
- Attend a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), such as a Historically Black College or University (HBCU)
2. Must meet one of the following:
- Currently enrolled in a 2-year community college or a certificate program (or have completed one within the past year)
- Enrolled in a 4-year college or university or have graduated within the past year. Four-year college/university students must be completing at least their freshman year prior to the start of the internship.
- Graduate students must be enrolled in a Master’s program or have received their Master’s degree within the past year. Doctoral students/candidates and post-docs are not eligible for the Internship Challenge.
Please Note:
- Interns are to be hired and paid directly by the host organization. Any employed intern shall be treated as a W-2 employee (not a contractor or subcontractor). Interns must be hired for a temporary internship experience and not as permanent employees. Upon completion of the internship, interns can be hired as full-time employees.
- If the internship position is hybrid, at least 40% of the internship must be in-person (two days/week minimum).
- Organizations cannot hire an intern who is the relative or spouse of a relative of any current employee of the organization (or department/lab, if employer is a research institution).
- Interns cannot participate in more than one subsidized internship in the same program year.
- Interns cannot participate in more than two subsidized internships with the same organization.
- Internships cannot be concurrently subsidized by another state entity (such as MassTech or MassCEC).
