UA Little Rock alumna endows scholarship for students completing unpaid internships

February 12-18, 2018

By Rachel Knowlton

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock alumna and her husband have endowed a scholarship that will provide funding for undergraduate students who participate in unpaid internships.

Jane McKinney, a 1970 graduate of UA Little Rock, and her husband, Richard Tripodi, have donated funds to create the McKinney Family Endowed Internship Fund, which will provide students from the College of Social Sciences and Communication (CSSC) with financial support while they complete unpaid internships.

“Our new McKinney Family Endowed Internship Fund will impact our students greatly by providing the right financial support for them to serve as interns for local organizations and to learn more deeply how to apply what they are learning in real workplaces,” said Dr. Julien Mirivel, interim dean of CSSC. “The combination of a scholarship that also supports a student’s internship experience is quite simply a powerful gift for our students.”

McKinney and Tripodi see the endowed fund as a way to not only financially assist students in the short term, but as a long-term tool to aid the state’s economic development. Having a skilled workforce is crucial to the state’s ability to attract new businesses. Through internships, students become more skilled and better prepared for their career.

“UA Little Rock is a good school, and it does serve as an anchor for the community and a foundation to build on,” McKinney said. “You need to have something to attract people. You need a good education base, which is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”