Summer Internship & Travel Support

Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Commerce, ifo Institute, One Acre Fund

Summer Internships in Policy & Finance

(Princeton undergraduates) JRCPPF Undergraduate Associates are eligible to apply for grants to support summer internships in the areas of financial markets and public policy in the U.S. or abroad. The internships must be the non-profit or public sector, unpaid, full-time, and last a minimum of 6 weeks. Students should seek out and apply to internships independently and then provide a letter from the intern. For example, in previous years, students have worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Brookings, the ifo Institute, One Acre Fund, the Treasury Department, and state agencies. Information about past awardees is here and here. 

Grant awards vary from $2,600 to 6,500. The Center awards 4-5 such grants each year. To apply, visit the SAFE portal and search for "Public Policy and Finance Summer Internships". The application window closes on April 30, 2025. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Awardees will be notified before May 15, 2025.

As part of the requirements of the summer internship application, please be sure to include:

•    A one-page description of the internship written in your own words, including how it relates to public policy and finance.
•    A letter of commitment from the sponsoring agency that specifies the details of the work, the duration of the internship, and that it is an unpaid position.
•    Post requirement, upload a summary of your experience from the internship.

Please note that given the uncertainties around permitted travel, both domestic and international, you should contact your internship organizations and supervisors to check about the setup for remote work for some or all of the period of your summer employment. Some employers have proactively provided guidance on this point. Feel free to direct any questions about the application or summer internships in general to [email protected]

Summer Internships at the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan

The Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) has several unpaid summer internship opportunities for Princeton students interested in international development, development economics research, and policy analysis. CERP is a dynamic economic policy think tank with an extensive portfolio of research and policy projects for which they need skilled interns. These projects are led by CERP’s academic fellows as well as CERP’s senior research staff. This is a structured summer internship program for both local and international interns, with opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate-level interns. See the 'Life at CERP' video. Successful applicants may be eligible for internship funding through SPIA or JRCPPF. The CERP application period is now through mid-March 2025 (reviewed on a rolling basis).

Deadline: March 15, 2025

Apply here: CERP Princeton Internships

Summer Internships at the Macrofinance Lab

(Open to undergraduate students from Princeton and other institutions)  The Macrofinance Lab is dedicated to studying linkages between financial markets and the real economy. The lab encourages using advanced micro-empirical techniques and microeconomic data to answer fundamental questions about the interaction of finance and the macroeconomy.  The Macrofinance Lab has paid summer opportunities for multiple undergraduate research assistants interested in financial markets and macroeconomics. The research assistants work on various research projects under the supervision of faculty, postdoctoral associates, or doctoral candidates. The tasks include digitizing financial records, manipulating and cleaning data, data analysis, and developing a website to share data and code. Applicants should have strong quantitative/econometric skills and experience with coding, as well as some familiarity with statistical packages (STATA, Python, or R). Experience with data visualization tools, Github, and web content management systems like WordPress is a plus.

The internships (can be full-time or part-time) last 6-10 weeks and are paid on an hourly basis. To apply, please send your (1)resume, (2) unofficial transcript,  and (4) a letter of interest to [email protected] by April 15th for full consideration. Feel free to direct any questions about the application or summer internships in general to [email protected]

Graduate Student Travel Grants

JRCPFF Graduate Associates can apply for travel grants to attend a professional or scholarly conference at which they are presenting. The Center awards up to $600 per fiscal year for eligible travel-related expenses (transportation, accommodation), consistent with the university’s travel policy.

In order to qualify, students must:

  • be regularly enrolled MPA, MPP, or Ph.D. candidates at the time of application and at the time of their proposed presentation, and be JRCPPF student associates; 
  • have been invited to deliver a paper or poster that represents their own work. (Serving as a discussant or respondent on a panel, giving a job talk, etc., do not qualify for support;)
  • submit and document an application to the Graduate School for conference funding in the current year (Dean's Fund for Scholarly Travel), as well as documentation that funding from the Department of Economics or the Woodrow Wilson School is exhausted or unavailable.
  • If conference travel funding is available from conference organizers, students must document an application for this funding.

Applications, along with all supporting documentation, should be submitted in SAFE (JRCPPF Graduate Student Conferences) at least two weeks prior to the travel date. Feel free to direct any questions about the application or summer internships in general to [email protected]