Peace Corps Internship Program (Spring 2025)

Summary

The Student Internship Program provides opportunities for Undergraduate and/or Graduate students, who are enrolled on a full time or halftime basis in an academic field of study. These internships are intended to provide students an opportunity to perform a variety of professional and technical duties to increase, develop, and apply knowledge of generally accepted principles, concepts, and practices of the occupation relevant to the area of study the trainee's enrolled educational program.

Duties

The trainee will perform a variety of professional and technical duties designed to increasingly develop and apply knowledge of generally accepted principles, concepts, and practices of the occupation relevant to the area of study of the trainee's enrolled educational program.

Based on the area of enrolled field of study, the trainee may be placed in one of the program offices indicated below with a focus on the following occupational fields:

• Business and Industry: Receives training and experience on management of routine technical and administrative tasks to carry contracting, procurement, purchasing, property management, financial analysis functions, training, and office programming. Gains knowledge in preparing and developing reports and documents necessary to meet these requirements. Develops understanding of work involved in procurement of supplies and services, methods used in contracting and knowledge of business and industry practices, training, and programming.
• Communication, Policy Review and Development: Receives experience and training to develop knowledge and skill in conducting technical and administrative functions related to communications, marketing, and outreach. Duties may include writing press releases, drafting stories for newsletters, reports for Congress, Congressional relations, assembling press kits, researching policy, media coverage, compiling information and reports, draft correspondence and provide administrative support for events, communication campaigns, international objectives, and activities.
• Financial Management, Accounting and Budget: Receives training and experience in a variety of professional financial and accounting duties designed to enable and increasingly develop and apply knowledge of generally accepted principles, concepts, and practices. Duties support fiscal and accounting program management, systems, and reports.
• General Administrative and Office Services: Receives training and experience in administrative management operations to gain knowledge of procedures and techniques involved in carrying out the functions of an administrative management program. The trainee will perform clerical and administrative tasks to support filing systems and automation support necessary for general office management/support, procurement of goods and services and maintain the flow of records, reports, and information. The trainee may perform analytical work under guidance to identify resource requirements and develop reports.
• Human Resources: Receives training in the principles, concepts, work processes, and regulations of one or more functional areas of Human Resources Management. The training is designated to provide a career-oriented introduction to the background, concepts, and scope of the Human Resources (HR) program and a practical understanding of the policies of the organization. Work assignments are designed to provide experience in a variety of human resources activities.

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Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Please read this Public Notice in its entirety prior to submitting your application for consideration.

• You must be a U.S. Citizen and meet the requirements of the program.
• You must be at least 18 years of age.
• If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System or are exempt from having to do so. For additional information, see www.sss.gov.
• All Federal employees are required to have federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• Telework eligible positions do not guarantee telework. As a reminder - If you are selected for a position, you are responsible for reporting to your designated POD (location) on the negotiated start date or as directed by management.
• Remote-work eligible positions do not guarantee remote work. See Peace Corps Manual Section 633 for agency policy regarding remote work.
• This is a non-bargaining unit position.
• You must complete a Declaration for Federal Employment to determine your suitability for Federal employment, at the time requested by the agency.
• Applicants must go through a Personal Identity Verification (PIV) process that requires two forms of identification from the Form I-9. Federal law requires verification of the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires in the U.S. These documents must be unexpired original or certified copies.
• Applicants must successfully complete a background security investigation with favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet this requirement will be grounds for employment termination. This position requires a Public Trust security clearance.
• This position requires a public trust background investigation.
• Additional hiring needs may be filled through this vacancy.

Qualifications

All qualification requirements must be met by 08/15/2024 (the closing date of this announcement). Qualification claims will be subject to verification.

You must have been accepted for enrollment or be enrolled and seeking a degree in a qualifying educational institution on a full or halftime basis.

• If you are a student from a university that does not allow participation in paid internship programs, you will be required to provide a letter from your school verifying that you are not allowed to be paid while in the program. Additionally, you will be required to sign a letter of exemption that you will not be paid while participating in the program.
• Applicants must be Undergraduate (Juniors and Seniors) or Graduate Students:
• Students must be returning to school immediately following the internship to qualify for the program. In addition, students must provide an official transcript with their application confirming enrollment status.
• An individual enrolled in school and receiving credit toward their degree for participating in the Student Internship Program is also considered a student.
• An applicant is considered a junior if he/she will have completed all sophomore credits (60 or more semester hours or 90 quarter hours) by the time the internship begins and will be entering at least the junior year immediately following completion of the internship.
• Have a minimum 3.0 GPA:If the school does not issue Grade Point Averages (GPAs), please work with your registrar office to understand the markings associated with each course on your transcript to use the GPA Calculation Table. Note: a GPA must be entered for your application to be complete and for you to be considered.
• FP-09 - Completion of four academic years of post-high school study leading to a bachelor's degree or equivalent degree.
• FP-07 - Completion of one academic year of graduate level education; OR eligibility under the Superior Academic Achievement* provision, as defined in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Operating Manual for Qualification Standards, and completion of a bachelor's degree.
• FP-05 - Completion of two academic years of graduate level education, or a master's degree or equivalent graduate degree.

*Superior Academic Achievement (Bachelor's degree) - In the upper one-third of graduating class; OR a GPA of 3.0 or higher out of 4.0, as recorded on official transcript, or based on courses completed during final 2 years of curriculum; OR a GPA of 3.5 or higher out of 4.0, based on average of required courses completed in major or required courses in major completed during the final 2 years of curriculum.

Academic Year Clarification:

• At the undergraduate level, 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours is comparable to 1 year of undergraduate education. When academic credit is expressed in units or other terms that differ from conventional semester or quarter hours, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide an interpretation of such credits from the institution.
• At the graduate level (education above a bachelor's), one year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full time study requirement for GS-07. And 36 semester hours for 2 years of full-time study should be considered as satisfying the GS-09 requirement. When academic credit is expressed in units or other terms that differ from conventional semester or quarter hours, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide an interpretation of such credits from the institution.

Additional information on qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on the OPM web site at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/