CofC Partners With Google for New Summer Internship Experience

It’s hard to imagine life before Google. We rely on its data to help us do the things we want to do, learn the things we want to know and become the person we want to become.

Turning to the search engine to find opportunities for professional and personal growth is one thing. But now Google is taking it to the next level, providing opportunities for real-life experiential learning for five College of Charleston students.

Thanks to a new partnership with the College, Google is inviting students to intern at the Google Data Center in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, for the first time ever. The Google DEI Data Center Summer Internship aims to expose diverse students, regardless of their major, to career opportunities and to give them transferable skills that they can leverage in a range of careers.

“This important partnership allows our students to explore unfamiliar career opportunities with a very familiar company,” says Courtney Howard, chief diversity officer and vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at the College of Charleston. “We are confident this will be impactful for students and are thrilled that the Google Data Center reached out to the Office of Institutional Diversity with a desire to engage in a meaningful diversity partnership.”

The robust 10-week summer experience runs June 3­–Aug. 9, 2024, and is broken into two parts: the six-week internship at the Google Data Center, followed by four weeks of virtual coursework.

For the first six weeks, interns will be provided campus housing, breakfast and lunch at Google, a food allowance and a stipend while spend two weeks exploring each of the three job functions at the Google Data Center:

• Global Server Operations – managing the machines that support the internet
• Data Center Operations – maintaining site facilities
• Data Center Services – managing construction for the site

During this time, they will also be part of the College’s Career Center Certificate Internship Program, which requires them to complete a learning agreement, make weekly journal entries, conduct an informational interview and write a summary paper. They will officially be recognized for their internships and will receive career development support.

Then, for the four remaining weeks, the students will be paid a stipend while they complete two relevant Coursera courses.

“We believe our model of combining an on-site internship with Coursera coursework is a unique approach to experiential learning and demonstrates the type of innovation that makes the College an extraordinary place to learn,” says Howard.

All College of Charleston students are invited to apply, regardless of major. AALANA, Launchpad for Success, and first-generation college students who are in their first or second year are especially encouraged to apply.

The application requires students to submit a résumé and a 350-400–word essay about why they are interested in the internship and why they think diversity, equity and inclusion are important in the workplace.

Students may apply for the Google DEI Data Center Summer Internship program via Handshake through March 1, 2024. Finalists will be interviewed March 25­–April 3, 2024, and the selected students will then complete a virtual orientation for the Certificate Internship Program.