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Hello,

So I have an unpaid internship this summer for 10 weeks and received funding from my school but the funding only covers 8 weeks. I tried to receive outside funding for the last 2 weeks of my internship but haven't been able to from my school or other sources. I talked with my parents and I just can't afford to be doing an unpaid internship without a stipend for the last two weeks of the internship - my dad recently lost his job and the city is just way too expensive (my commute, food, etc.). I need to tell my supervisor this but I'm not sure how because they told me up front that the internship is 10 weeks and I made a commitment to them when I accepted the internship. I'm also embarrassed to basically say "I can't afford to work for you for an extra 2 weeks." The internship is 5 days a week, 40 hours a week.

I feel like I need to e-mail my supervisor before it begins to give them enough notice. I'm concerned about how to write this e-mail and also don't want to burn any bridges. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks!

Can you budget your stipend to get you out the ten weeks? And take out a loan in the summer if it's an option? We get our stipend paid in a lump sum and you just have to learn how to make due. There are loans you can take out if needed. What is your cost running so high? You're not going to be paid for those two weeks anyway. Will you not have to pay rent if you don't work those last two weeks?


Did your employer make it explicit that working ten weeks was required and that if you couldn't you'd be out? Regardless you have to email them and let them know if you truly can't make it work. Just explain you don't have the funding to commute/live in the city to work there.

aal793 wrote:Hello,

So I have an unpaid internship this summer for 10 weeks and received funding from my school but the funding only covers 8 weeks. I tried to receive outside funding for the last 2 weeks of my internship but haven't been able to from my school or other sources. I talked with my parents and I just can't afford to be doing an unpaid internship without a stipend for the last two weeks of the internship - my dad recently lost his job and the city is just way too expensive (my commute, food, etc.). I need to tell my supervisor this but I'm not sure how because they told me up front that the internship is 10 weeks and I made a commitment to them when I accepted the internship. I'm also embarrassed to basically say "I can't afford to work for you for an extra 2 weeks." The internship is 5 days a week, 40 hours a week.

I feel like I need to e-mail my supervisor before it begins to give them enough notice. I'm concerned about how to write this e-mail and also don't want to burn any bridges. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks!

Tell your supervisor that you can't afford to work for free for two weeks without income from school. How is that embarassing? You're a student. Am I missing something?

You don't need to feel embarrassed, and you can leave out the specifics if it makes you more comfortable and just ask if there's any way you could cut your internship to 8 weeks because your school will only fund you for 8 weeks. And definitely don't feel bad about "committing" to them. 8 weeks is a perfectly long enough internship, and they are not paying you -- you don't owe them anything.

k5220 wrote:You don't need to feel embarrassed, and you can leave out the specifics if it makes you more comfortable and just ask if there's any way you could cut your internship to 8 weeks because your school will only fund you for 8 weeks. And definitely don't feel bad about "committing" to them. 8 weeks is a perfectly long enough internship, and they are not paying you -- you don't owe them anything.

Completely agree. You don't have anything to be embarrassed about. Not everyone can afford to work for free and I definitely wouldn't go into debt for an unpaid internship. Hopefully your stipend will be enough to at least cover your costs.

Totally agree there is nothing to be embarrassed about.

You are volunteering your time and money to do the internship, any org that ditched you for those 2 weeks is not worth working for.