Delaware-based non-profit, public service, or government organizations are invited to engage University of Delaware (UD) undergraduate students on short-term, paid Micro-Internships.
WHAT: Qualifying organizations can have a professional project that requires roughly 20 or 40 hours of work by the student to complete.
COST: There is no cost for qualifying organizations. Micro-grants offered by the UD Career Center cover the payment to Micro-Interns ($600 for 40-hour projects, and $300 for 20-hour projects).
TIMELINE: Projects can be posted between October and mid-November and students will complete them during Winter Break (mid-December - Mid-February).
NOTE: The Winter Break program is no longer accepting new project submissions.
HOW TO GET STARTED: All opportunities will be posted on and student payment will be processed through our Micro-Internship partner, Parker Dewey.
How it Works
Creating your account takes less than 5 minutes, and there's no cost to set it up or post your project!
See templates below.
Access diverse University of Delaware talent. All costs are covered for qualifying organizations.
Engage with the Micro-Intern in whatever way works best for you, while Parker Dewey handles all admin.
Featured BlueHensWork Micro-Internships
Winter Break Program Timeline
October 1 -
November 15
Post your project via Parker Dewey.
November 15-
December 15
Micro-Internships will begin to be promoted to UD students. Students can be selected for Micro-Internships at any time.
December 15 -
January 31, 2025
February 15, 2025
Students return to classes and all Micro-Internships must be marked complete. Students paid by Parker Dewey upon project completion.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Micro-Internship is a short-term project that can typically be completed within 10-40 hours and is due within a few days to a few weeks. These projects require no on-boarding and can be completed by a college student with minimal instruction. These are important but low-risk tasks that aren’t the best use of your time.
The UD BlueHensWork program will support Delaware-based non-profit, public service, or government organizations are able to host 1 40-hour project or 2 20-hour projects under this funding.
Thanks to the generous support of the University of Delaware Career Services, Delaware-based nonprofit and government agencies are eligible to receive full funding for 20 and 40-hour Micro-Internships as long as they select a current University of Delaware undergraduate student for their project.
The student receives $300 or $600 upon completion of the project depending on if the project is scoped to take 20 or 40 hours to complete. Students are paid by Parker Dewey upon completion of the project.
If you have a longer project in mind, please contact Parker Dewey via the form below.
In short, it’s easy as Parker Dewey handles it all. No HR burdens. No conversion fees. No questions about ownership or worries about confidentiality.
- Employment: Micro-Interns are not your employees, contractors, interns, temps, or freelancers. Similar to working with a consulting firm or any other service provider, you are engaging Parker Dewey LLC to complete the assignment, and each individual you select is a contractor or employee of Parker Dewey. You can still directly interact with them as much or little as you would like, and always have the opportunity to hire them directly without any costs or fees.
- Liability: We’re mission-driven and believe in the power of creating opportunities. That said, we take on all the liability. Not happy with the work product? We’ll give you a full refund or find an alternate Career Launcher.
- Work Product: All work product is owned by you.
- Confidentiality: While most projects involve public-facing information of a non-sensitive nature, both Parker Dewey and all Career Launchers sign strict NDAs to protect your information. In addition to the standard provisions, the students understand that they are risking their academic transcript or expulsion for any violation of confidentiality.
- Background Checks: Given the short-term nature and structure of these assignments, we do not conduct background checks. While companies are always welcome to conduct a background check directly, the nature of the specific assignments and lack of a direct relationship with the individual who is selected has caused most organizations to defer the background check until after a Micro-Internship is completed and a student is offered a traditional internship or full-time role.
Micro-Internships are not meant to replace traditional internship programs but rather complement and even supplement them. Due to their short-term nature, Micro-Internships can be used year-round to find on-demand project support while simultaneously allowing you to engage and evaluate potential talent.
Micro-Internships can be either on-site or virtual, depending on the specific requirements of the project. We typically suggest remote, as this provides more flexibility and accessibility.
The project manager will be a member of your team, whether that be a hiring manager, team lead, or another employee. At the start of the project, they will clarify specific expectations and share the information/materials necessary for your Micro-Intern to complete the project. From there, they can engage the student in whatever way works best, whether that be email, Zoom, etc. Because University of Delaware students on Parker Dewey have core skills and are highly motivated to exceed expectations, they require minimal management.
Parker Dewey's Client Program team is dedicated to making sure that it's as easy to hire one Micro-Intern as it is to hire 100. Contact Parker Dewey to learn more.
More Questions?
Parker Dewey is happy to review the details of this program or discuss your greater early career talent recruiting needs. To connect with our team, please complete the form.