COLUMN: Unpaid internships aren’t cheap

Just last week, I had the privilege of accepting my fifth unpaid internship. That’s a combination of five semesters or summers during which I have worked entirely voluntarily. I suppose I am officially a supporter and an advocate for the commonly despised unpaid internship.

It’s not that I have not had any opportunities to earn money working.  However, the unpaid opportunities I’ve been provided have outweighed — in my mind and for my career goals — the paid ones, and thankfully I have been privileged enough to follow my passions as opposed to the dollar.

I’m not angry about my unpaid internships. Rather, I chose the opportunities, and I cannot help but stay optimistic that all my hard work will eventually pay off into a paid job post-graduation.

The controversy of the unpaid internship is nothing new, especially in the entertainment industry. The case that sparked attention to the unpaid internship debate was the story of Eric Glatt, who worked as an unpaid intern on the film Black Swan.

According to The New York Times, the court ruled that Glatt and his fellow interns should have been classified as employees, citing a set of criteria released by the Department of Labor in 2010. These criteria indicate that in order for an internship to be unpaid the work must “be similar to training offered in a school setting.”

This case prompted a series of other interns to come forward with lawsuits, specifically against Sony, Warner Bros. and Viacom, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Present-day, these studios — and many others — have begun to pay interns for their work.

However, despite that it is well-appreciated that studios are paying their hard-working students, many other companies — especially smaller production or entertainment companies — still do not pay students. More so, the studio internships have become vastly more competitive and political in the hiring process because they are now paid, so snagging one of those internships is all the more difficult.

Unfortunately, unpaid internships are part of reality in some industries — the free-labor student initiative is regrettably a concept that’s here to stay. Rick Levy, partner and general counsel at ICM Partners, told The Hollywood Reporter that, “there is a long, long tradition of intern programs being an integral part of careers in Hollywood.” It sounds primal, but “paying your dues” is unfortunately just one part of the ever-growing and cutthroat business.

I, for one, have not once regretted my unpaid internships. Last summer, I worked at a wonderful production company called Beachside Films. Though I was unpaid, my supervisor included me on every aspect of what was going on, and I have never learned so much about the inner workings of a production company as I did simply being there and being included. After interning there, my knowledge far extended anything I could have learned in a classroom or from a teacher.

Even though unpaid internships aren’t disappearing from the debate anytime soon, there are ways that USC could make the agony of the unpaid internship less excruciating.

Claremont McKenna College has a “Sponsored Internship Program,” for example, which, according to the college’s website, “provides funding for summer internships in the U.S. and abroad.” Essentially, students apply to various competitive sponsored internship programs and submit proposals. Those selected receive stipends to support themselves during their internship or fellowship programs.

As a University encouraging and promoting internships for students, USC could offer more extensive sponsored internship programs. Opportunities more often exist in the political and nonprofit sectors; however, greater funding could go to encouraging students in the arts to pursue real-life learning experience. After all, while classwork is great, it is often experience that propels a student forward career-wise.

If any sort of school-related funding is too much to ask, the least schools and unpaid programs can do is team up against the awfulness of the requirement for school credit. Adding the stipulation of school credit sounds beneficial on the surface as it’s an excuse for justifying not paying, but in reality it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

It may be a radical idea, but there should be a way a student can get some sort of “credit” without paying thousands of dollars or jumping through extraneous hoops.

Evidently, unpaid internships are here to stay. It’s bad enough to be unpaid — let’s not make students actually pay to work when they’re willing to work for free.

Mollie Berg is a senior majoring in communication. Her column, “All in a Day’s Work,” runs every other Wednesday.