Brown to help fund internships for financial aid students

BROWN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT Christina H. Paxson announced at a White House summit Thursday that the university has committed $500,000 to provide at least one funded internship or research opportunity to students who receive need-based financial aid, beginning this summer. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY/PATRICK O'CONNOR
BROWN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT Christina H. Paxson announced at a White House summit Thursday that the university has committed $500,000 to provide at least one funded internship or research opportunity to students who receive need-based financial aid, beginning this summer. / COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY/PATRICK O'CONNOR

PROVIDENCE – Brown University has made a new commitment to provide at least one funded internship or research opportunity to any student who receives need-based financial aid, President Christina Paxson said Thursday.
Announced at a White House summit on the “College Pipeline Initiative” hosted by President Barack Obama, the assurance will be made to undergraduates regardless of their economic circumstances, Paxson said.
The program will begin this summer and gradually expand to include all qualified students by the summer of 2018. Brown will make it possible for students to participate in these experiences regardless of their financial means.
“Students who receive financial aid often need paid work during the summer months in order to afford college,” Paxson said. “The prospect of an unpaid or inadequately compensated internship, coupled with the expense of living away from home, may put the experience out of reach regardless of its educational value.”
To counter that, she added, “Brown will ensure that aided students are not deprived of these important opportunities. It is a matter of equity.”
Brown has committed half a million dollars to support aided students who have opportunities for internships or research but not the financial means to take full advantage of them.
Over the last decade, Brown has more than doubled its direct spending on need-based financial aid, from $44 million to nearly $100 million. The university has also focused its financial-aid budget on those with the highest need, eliminating parental contributions from families earning less than $60,000 and eliminating loans for those earning less than $100,000.
During the last 10 years, the percentage of aided students with no expected parental contribution has tripled; the number of students receiving Pell Grants has increased by 45 percent; and the class of 2017, with 49 percent of its members receiving financial aid, is the most diverse in Brown’s nearly 250-year history, including 41 percent who are students of color and 17 percent who are first-generation students, the university said.

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