State Policy Summer Internship (2025)

About the Position

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) seeks candidates for two paid internships for the summer of 2025. The ideal candidate will be a motivated, active learner interested in higher education policy, state governance, and policy analysis. This internship is appropriate for students pursuing graduate study or a career in higher education, public policy, public administration, and related fields.

Interns will provide support on a variety of projects depending on the intern’s skills and interests and SHEEO’s needs. Your work will center on policy areas that may include college attainment, student success, data systems, workforce development, or higher education finance. Interns will work closely with the internship coordinator and their supervisors to develop and work toward achieving professional goals while working alongside a talented SHEEO team and their projects.

This year, interns will be primarily working on one of the following SHEEO projects: A) Strong Foundations or B) Equity and Adequacy Funding Research. Interns will have the opportunity to work on other projects as workload permits.

Examples of Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create and maintain state policy and news inventories.
• Curate unique data sources for analysis.
• Perform data analysis and discover trends to support publications.
• Assist with active survey administration.
• Generate and review website content.
• Contribute to meeting agenda planning.
• Design and build data visualizations.
• Draft various publications (e.g., blog posts, social media content, reports).
• Complete an independent research project using SHEEO resources.
• Attend and assist SHEEO staff with our annual Higher Education Policy Conference.

Qualifications and Experiences

SHEEO is seeking individuals with a combination of the following backgrounds and qualifications:

• Demonstrated interest in, enthusiasm for, and curiosity about state higher education policy or the impacts of federal higher education policy on states.
• Recently completed coursework or actively working in higher education, public policy, public administration, or a related field; experience with statistics or research methods is a plus.
• A commitment to advancing equity and student success in higher education.
• Experience working with large quantitative datasets and/or qualitative data, with knowledge of higher education data preferred.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Goals of the SHEEO State Policy Internship Program

Through its summer internship program, SHEEO hopes to enhance future higher education policy practitioners, analysts, and researchers by:

• Including interns in an expansive array of higher education policy topics and projects.
• Advancing equity and diversity in state higher education policy discussions.
• Increasing the skills and knowledge of those who aim to work within the state higher education policy field.
• Providing opportunities to network and meet with current state agency policymakers and other higher education policy partners.

The internship duration is flexible and will last for approximately 10 to 14 weeks, beginning in late May or early June. Interns may work remotely or on a hybrid schedule in our Boulder, Colorado, or Washington, D.C., office. Interns are invited to visit one of the two offices at the beginning of the internship. Toward the end of the internship period, interns are additionally invited to attend and help host the SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference in Minneapolis, which will be held from August 11-14, 2025. Interns are considered non-exempt employees and are expected to work a minimum of 30 hours per week, with schedules determined by mutual arrangement. This internship is paid at $23 per hour.

SHEEO seeks and strongly encourages individuals from historically underrepresented or marginalized groups to apply.

Application Process:

The application deadline is March 9, 2025. Please apply through this website and include the following:

1. A cover letter addressing:
   • Which SHEEO priorities are most interesting to you?
   • Please describe any previous class, work, and/or outside research projects related to higher education policy.
2. A resume or curriculum vitae.
3. Names and contact information of three professional references. (References will not be contacted until you have given permission for us to do so.)

Application reviews begin immediately following the deadline. Successful candidates will be contacted for an interview in March, and decisions will be made by the end of April.

About the organization

The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) serves the chief executives of statewide governing, policy, and coordinating boards of postsecondary education and their staffs. Founded in 1954, SHEEO promotes an environment that values higher education and its role in ensuring the equitable education of all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic factors. Together with its members, SHEEO aims to achieve this vision by equipping state higher education executive officers and their staffs with the tools to effectively advance the value of higher education, promoting public policies and academic practices that enable all Americans to achieve success in the 21st century, and serving as an advocate for state higher education leadership. Read more about SHEEO on our website: https://sheeo.org. SHEEO is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and believes that recruiting and developing a diverse and inclusive staff is vital to the success of the organization