Five hundred SUNY students will be selected for the inaugural Empire State Service Corps internship program this fall, according to an announcement from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month.
The program, which is backed by $2.75 million of the state’s budget, will hire students to perform civic engagement work, such as helping other students file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form and conducting campus outreach for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. said he hopes students from low-income backgrounds especially take advantage of the internship.
“At SUNY, we've got a large percentage of students who are low and middle-income. Students who may have to make the choice — even though they want to do service work — that they have to make money in order to support their education, or in some cases help support their family,” he said.
“So this now is saying, 'Hey, you can make $16 an hour, do 300 hours of service, and have this fulfilling service experience instead of feeling like you have to work in a job that's just about making money.'”
According to King, the Empire State Service Corps will complement student service work from two other initiatives: the FAFSA Completion Corps and the SUNY Climate Corps.
“Our hope is — long term — to grow,” King said. “The application has only been out for a couple of weeks, not even… and we've already got 400 applications for 500 slots.”
The first Empire State Service Corps members are set to begin their work during the upcoming fall semester.
