Since the summer of 2009, Georgia State has offered housing for student interns. However, this fact is not as widely known as university housing hopes for it to be, according to Ty Hill, Coordinator for Conference and Program Services.
Hill said Georgia State’s location is a key area for internships and the department wants to raise awareness of the university’s intern housing.
“We do have room for growth and I want to get the word out there especially just at the rate the university is growing we feel like maybe it is time for another announcement sort of thing to let people know this option is there because we get a lot of students from all over the world who come and do research on campus,” she said.
Interns staying in university housing have interned at the World of Coca Cola, Georgia Lottery and SunTrust. They have also worked at the Bar Association, state capital and law firms in the area, according to Hill.
“Sporadically we even had a couple of students who are interning for Georgia Tech to stay on our campus because they didn’t have the room because they have a very large intern program as well,” she said.
The number of interns using Georgia State’s housing has increased from 42 interns in 2013 to 56 in 2014, according to Hill.
“It has been a continuous growth every year,” she said. “The more and more it is around, the word gets around more.”
The intern housing programs are available at the University Commons and Piedmont North, both of which have free laundry facilities, according to university housing’s website.
In the Commons, interns would pay $28 per night to live in a four bedroom and two bathroom apartment style dorm, according to the website.
Hill also said more interns choose the Commons because they have the opportunity to cook in a kitchen.
“They like to cook on their [own] or have the luxury of having a refrigerator and a kitchen,” she said. “Last year we opened up Piedmont North due to the fact that the Commons was closed down due to renovations. So that’s when we started it.”
In Piedmont North, it costs $30 per night to share a bed space and bathroom with another intern. Since the residence hall doesn’t have a kitchen, a nightly dinner is included in the daily rate, according to the website.Hill said most interns work full time hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the summer time.
“So, we found that it was based off of surveying interns based on previous years that dinner was the only feasible thing they would use because of them being away so much during the summer hours,” she said.
Some of the other amenities interns staying in housing have access to parking, networking programming and have a gym membership included in their fees, according to Hill.
“We build out a gym in the building for them to utilize,” she said. “It is heavily used. So, I think that is something we used last summer based off of feedback we received from previous summers.”
The price is based on a market evaluation among Georgia State, Emory and Georgia Tech. She said they are the three universities in the area that offer the same program, according to Hill.
“Our location is a very prime location to a lot of the businesses right here in the Downtown area,” Hill said.
Dominique Glover, Georgia State’s University Housing conference manager, said he didn’t know about student intern housing until he began working for university housing. He said he wants to bring the opportunity to the attention of students.
“Our advantage is that Georgia State University is located in the heart of Atlanta,” he said. “Many popular places that students would want to intern at is in walking distance such as the Georgia Aquarium, the CNN Center, the State Capital, Philips Arena.”
Glover also said with his position he ensures that guests have a great experience while staying in university housing.
“Interns from the past have been very satisfied with our services especially with our excellent staff, our competitive and affordable prices and hosting fun events such as mixers with our staff and other interns that made the intern housing experience very pleasurable,” he said.
After living on campus for two years, Crystal Chisholm, Georgia State junior philosophy major, said she hasn’t heard of the program or interned before either.
She also said students would be more informed about intern housing if the information was made available through student organizations.
“I think they should go through Spotlight, Greek, Campus Events [and] student involvement. Just get those people to put it on their social media,” Chisholm said.
To foster awareness of intern housing, Hill said they are in the process of building an ad campaign for various university departments.
“I do plan on pushing that ad campaign out to the departments here on campus and we are also looking to do the same thing for the various companies here in the Atlanta metro area,” she said.
Hill also said the application for intern housing can be found online on the University Housing website under Conferences Services.
“We made it very easy where they can do it all online,” she said.
The registration for the intern application process opens up in November and closes on May 8 and a $200 deposit has to be paid, according to the university’s housing website.
University Housing verifies if the intern is a student and the company they are working for, according to Hill.
Those with questions about student intern housing can visit the University Housing Conference Service’s office or email a conference manager, according to Glover.
