It’s been years since Paige Moore started looking for a college internship. As a freshman at Indiana University, she didn’t have many options.
First, it was hard to find a paid internship. Then she had to find a place that catered for people with disabilities. Moore is deaf and uses sign language interpreters. She felt at a disadvantage.
Then she found Eskenazi Health’s Gregory S. Fehribach Center.
“It just felt like a perfect match,” Moore said.
Now a senior, she has had three internships, all of which have helped build her resume as a neuroscience major.
Moore was one of 195 college students with disabilities who received the internship, out of about 400 available in and around Indianapolis, said Larry Markle, director of the Fehrebach Center.
Markle said the program typically hosts about 65 students from Indiana and surrounding states each summer.
“The goal of the Fehribach Center’s internship program is to provide extremely talented and qualified college students with disabilities with access to high-quality internships so they can add experience to their resumes that will help them find employment after graduation,” Markle said.
The Fehribach Center’s internship program began with just one student
The U.S. Department of Labor reported in October that about 37 percent of people with disabilities between the ages of 16 and 64 were employed. For people without disabilities, that figure rose to 75 percent. Unemployment rates for young people with disabilities were also high.
Nearly one in five college students report having a disability, and college graduates with disabilities often have a hard time finding work. Most barriers stem from attitudes toward people with disabilities, said Carlos Taylor, a program manager at Fehribach.
“There is a general perception that people with disabilities are not capable or able to fulfill their full responsibilities in work-related tasks and in the work environment,” he said.
The internship program’s roots lie at Ball State University, where the center’s namesake, attorney Gregory Fehrbach, is a graduate and former board member. The idea for the center began with a question from Fehrbach. At the time, Markle was director of disability services at Ball State.
“Why are we not seeing people with disabilities in leadership positions or executive roles? And what do we do?,” Markle said. “So we realized that students with disabilities at Ball State were not being as involved in the career development process as they should have been. So, using Greg’s connections, we started a small internship program with a student 10 years ago in 2013.”
A wheelchair-using student from Ball State University was the first participant in the Fehribach Center’s internship program, and Markle said the student worked at Eskenazi Health, which then asked for more interns.
The program has expanded to 36 universities, with a new location at Eskenazi Health, Markle said, and 39 employers, including Eli Lilly, the Indiana Pacers and the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, host interns.
Markle and Taylor now help lead the program, which places students with disabilities in full-time, paid internships in Indianapolis. Students are matched with employers after a screening interview based on their major and goals, Markle said, and the students ultimately decide where they’ll land the internship. The process is meant to be personalized, he said.
Taylor said that while attending college is often seen as a “magic ticket” to tenure, college students with disabilities have to think of other ways to stay competitive in the job market. Experience and internships are ways to do that, but they’re often something that gets put off, Taylor said.
“And when they don’t have the work experience that their non-disabled peers have on their resumes, it makes it really hard for them to compete in the workplace,” Taylor said.
Identify barriers that interns with disabilities may face
Taylor said the center works with employers to accommodate interns, some of whom have vision, hearing, mobility and orthopedic disabilities.
Some students can’t drive, so free transportation from Eskenazi Health and Uber coupons are provided. The center also arranges for workplace equipment. Students have access to screen magnification software, screen reading software, large screen monitors, speech-to-text dictation software, live captioning and American Sign Language interpretation.
“For college students with physical disabilities, we want to foster an environment where their disability isn’t the primary focus,” Taylor said. “The primary focus is on gaining work experience and gaining the skills they need to be competitive when it comes time to enter the workforce.”
Moore said she didn’t have to worry about when to disclose her disability or how to arrange for an interpreter, because Taylor and Markle coordinated that with their employers.
Moore’s favorite part of her internship is living at IUPUI’s Riverwalk Apartments. Interns can stay there for free, and she got to meet other interns with disabilities. She said she found a community of people who are “disadvantaged in the normal world.”
“We all had similar struggles going into society, but we were all united in that,” Moore said. “It allowed us to connect more. We don’t just have disadvantages and obstacles, we can work to overcome them and become better people.”
Each of Moore’s three internships was different.
Moore first worked at Eskenazi Health, mentoring doctors treating patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. At the time, she was interested in clinical neuroscience. After her internship, she decided to change direction.
During her second internship, she worked in the Neuroscience Research Department at Indiana Methodist University, collecting data to study brain degeneration in people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and it was at this point that she realized she was “definitely interested in research.”
During her third internship, she learned about diet and the brain, and Moore expressed a desire to work in that field, which Markle and Taylor made possible.
“All of the other opportunities were amazing, but this one was my favorite because I got to work and learn so much about nutrition and what a typical dietitian does,” she said. “I feel like this opportunity really helped me build the foundation I need for my career because I want to do neuroscience research and look at how diet and nutrition affect cognitive disorders and degenerative diseases.”
Taylor said the summer program will have guest instructors each week leading professional development workshops and disability advocacy in the workplace.
Taylor said people with disabilities face significant anxiety when searching for work. If an employer finds out they have a disability during a job search, they may not be hired. Students will have to be more proactive in getting accommodations in the workplace, she said.
“We want to help them talk through these scenarios and think ahead to how they want to handle each situation, because it’s different for everyone,” Taylor said. “We want to help them think ahead so they’re not scrambling and trying to figure out what to do next, how to do this, what to say.”
A “life-changing” career experience for college students
According to Markle, about 93 percent of interns engage in career development after their internship ends, with some graduating and entering the workforce or going on to college or graduate school.
“We’ve found that many of the students with disabilities who participate in this program have a high rate of finding equal employment after completing their internship,” he said.
Indiana University Bloomington and IUPUI each hosted 16 interns last summer, according to the annual report. Indiana University Bloomington hosts Markle, Taylor and other Fehribach leaders each fall and summer to introduce students to the internship program.
Rachel Garber, associate director of university relations for the Career Development Center, said the relationship began when the Fehribach Center reached out to IU to ask if they had any students who would be a good fit for the internship program.
The relationship has grown, with IU students completing 90 internships over the years, Markle said, and there’s been a “great response” each year, Garber said.
“We all know that experience is what best helps students, or anyone, have opportunities after graduation,” Gerber said. “The opportunities that students have at the Fehribach Center are, quite frankly, life-changing.”
Gerber said students seeking help do not have to disclose a disability, and that career coaches will help anyone looking to succeed after college.
Gerber’s office works with Accessible Education Services to prepare students with disabilities for careers and jobs like Fehribach’s internship.
They have helped students identify their strengths and connect them to available opportunities, she said. Getting the word out about disability programs can be hard because no one is required to report a disability to the university. IU Bloomington promotes the program in emails to all students.
In January, just before the application deadline, Gerber checks in with students to see if they’re prepared: To apply, students need an up-to-date resume, cover letter and three letters of recommendation.
“There’s also the opportunity for students to stop by to help review their resumes and help them write applications and cover letters in time for the deadline of January 31,” Gerber said, “so it’s been a really great opportunity for me to support students and make those connections.”
Gerber said career coaching is all about positioning students for success after their time at IU ends, with intentional resources and relationships helping students move forward.
“They are really great students and I think we all hope so. When they graduate, we want to see them grow and find great opportunities,” Garber said.
So what will Moore do after she graduates? It’s a “big, scary question,” she says, but for now she has an answer: She plans to work and get more practical experience before going to graduate school. She hopes to work in research that combines neuroscience and nutrition, something she learned during her third internship.
Although she has added plenty of experience to her CV, she is unsure of when to tell employers she is hearing impaired and whether she should ask for an interpreter.
“I do have concerns about that, but I feel like the Fehribach program has given me the tools to overcome those concerns and move forward in my job search,” she said.