This past spring, a new internship in the NIU Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) marked the beginning of a promising collaboration between CGS and the NIU Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies (NNGO). An NNGO Studies undergraduate student intern provided support to a team in CGS’s Workforce Policy Lab as they developed a nonprofit capacity building program in partnership with the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In the process, the student intern gained hands-on experience in the field and a deeper understanding of how state funding streams impact nonprofit organizations.
Both centers see this internship as the next step in a lasting partnership that will help to strengthen ties among the university, government and nonprofit organizations, with the goal of better serving Illinois communities.
NIU junior Natalie Mealing is a double major in nonprofit and NGO studies and political science, and she’s the first CGS intern from the program.
“From my work with the NIU Center for Governmental Studies, I have learned about the complexities of grant administration. There are many small steps, reviews, timeline shifts and a need for flexibility,” she says. “A lot of what I did in my internship was built directly on what I had been learning in my NNGO classes. For example, I applied concepts of equitable grantmaking when I was developing an administrative review checklist.”
Find out more about Natalie’s internship experience in this NIU Today story.
