Sponsor an Intern

student filing swatchesFIT has forged strong alliances with organizations ranging from communications to manufacturing and from museums to non-profits since its founding. More than 2500 organizations have hosted our students as interns.

Our students are eager to gain firsthand experience in their fields and are prepared to meet the demands of your organizations, because their practical training is targeted to specific career areas from their first day on campus. Think of an internship as an academic class that takes place in your workspace.

By sponsoring an intern, your organization will:

  • discover new talent and encourage qualified individuals to enter the fashion and related industries 
  • receive fresh ideas and energy from our highly motivated students 
  • preview potential employees without any obligation or risk 

Annually, FIT's students fill more than a thousand credit-bearing internships—both paid and unpaid—in more than 25 academic majors. The part you play in their transition from student in an educational environment to professional in the business world is a very empowering one!

Sponsoring an Intern

NOTE: We run a student-preferenced placement process. Our students carry the responsibility of selecting for themselves the sponsor organizations in which they want to intern. We cannot guarantee that you will attract the attention of interns.

  • advertising
  • advertising and marketing communications (general)
  • auction houses (curatorial and non-curatorial)
  • buying
  • casting
  • communications and graphic design
  • cosmetics and fragrances
  • design: accessories, footwear, handbags, hats, jewelry, fashion apparel, menswear, textiles
  • direct and interactive marketing
  • display and/or exhibition design
  • event planning and management
  • fine arts
  • forecasting/trends
  • galleries  (curatorial and non-curatorial)
  • home products development
  • global fashion marketing
  • interior design
  • international trade and marketing: import/export, licensing, logistics, sourcing
  • market research
  • marketing communications
  • media: broadcast, film, print, video
  • merchandising
  • modeling
  • museums  (curatorial and non-curatorial)
  • music
  • patternmaking/technical design
  • photography
  • planning and allocation
  • product development
  • production management
  • public relations
  • retail management
  • showroom sales: accessories, apparel
  • styling
  • textile development and marketing
  • visual arts management: education, library, marketing
  • visual merchandising 

The Career and Internship Center runs a two-pronged academic program that comprises on-site professional career experience supervised by an organization executive and classroom instruction.

Considerable care is taken to ensure that every internship experience is aligned with the student's major area of study and his or her career interests, and that it meets the operational needs of the sponsor organization. Ours is a student-preferenced program. Sponsors will not hear from a counselor until the counselor has an interested student, so it is incumbent upon the sponsors to make their listings as attractive to students as possible.

  • Internships may be paid or unpaid. Please remember that paid internships are much more appealing to students and will frequently attract the most motivated individuals.
  • Because FIT's Internships are instructional in nature and relate to the student's academic major and/or career interest, interns DO NOT perform menial, repetitive tasks that are not compatible with instructional goals.
  • Interns are not intended to displace regular employees.
  • The Career and Internship Center's internship program is a State University of New York program in full compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Number of Hours

For fall, spring, and summer students, the number of hours spent at a sponsor site depends on whether they are enrolled in a 3-credit class.

  • 3-credit class: minimum of 123 hours during the semester/session

Our program requires that sponsor organizations provide FIT students with professional, educationally-valid experiences that honor the policies and procedures of FIT, SUNY, and the New York Department of Education.

In addition, prospective sponsor organizations are required to:

  • Comply with state regulations related to Workers' Compensation
  • Identify executives in their organizations who are willing to provide interns with daily supervision
  • Assure that their supervisors have expertise in mentoring, teaching, guiding,  and nurturing their interns
  • Interview prospective interns introduced to them by Career and Internship Center counselors; negotiate with and agree to provide interns with the kinds of learning experiences desired by the interns
  • Complete an end-of-semester written (multiple choice) evaluation of the intern's work
  • Comply with FIT's commitment to producing an environment that is free from all forms of harassment
  • Validate the intern's reported hours completed at midterm and final evaluations
  • Participate in an on-site visit by FIT of your organization to learn more about the company, your expectations of interns, and to discuss FIT's expectations of internships and sponsors.

We work a semester in advance.  

  • Students are required to apply for their internships one semester before the semester in which they plan on doing the internship.
  • The counseling, interviewing, and selection processes also take place a semester in advance of the actual internship.
  • Sponsors requesting students must apply and submit their internships at least 3-4 months prior to the semester for which they hope to attract interns to give their positions the best chance of being considered by our students.

Fall Semester

Fall semester interns begin their on-site work in late August or early September, serve 12 weeks, and finish their internships in mid-December.

Spring Semester

Spring semester interns begin their on-site work in late January or early February, serve a minimum of 12 weeks, and finish their internships in May.

Summer Session

Summer session interns begin their on-site work at the end of May or early June, serve for seven weeks, and finish their internships in mid-July.

Note: If the semester has already begun and you're looking to fill an immediate position, you may post a PAID non-credited internship (PT job) as an assistant.

To participate in the program, employers must:

1. Review and electronically sign FIT's Internship Sponsor Organization Acknowledgment.
a. FIT's Internship Sponsor Organization Acknowledgment outlines employer eligibility requirements and details of the program structure; employers are not obligated to place a student by agreeing to these terms.

2. Register for a CSJB account and post the academic credited internship. NOTE: For some semesters, and some majors, we tend to have more sponsors in our databank than we have students registered in our program, so we highly advise that you make your internship posting as appealing as possible and post as early in the prior semester as possible.
a. On the CSJB login screen, click on the "Register" button.
b. If you are a new employer or contact, your CSJB user account will be reviewed within 6 days.

3. Interview candidates.
a. This process is up to the discretion of each sponsor. If you are interested in conducting your interviews on campus, please contact Nadia Peters-Marulaz at [email protected].

4. Place an FIT student.
a. Once the internship position has been accepted by the student, employers should provide students with an offer letter and prompt students to report their experience in Symplicity.

If you experience difficulties or have further questions, please contact Career & Internship Services at (212) 217-3000 or [email protected].