Zimbabwe Career Connect

The Education Matters Zimbabwe Career Connect Internship Program is an experiential service learning program that matches Zimbabwean students studying in the U.S. with Zimbabwean companies and non-governmental organizations during the student’s vacation period from university. The spectrum of available internship opportunities is broad and responsive to the interests of the selected student participants. The program will run for 8 weeks for the months of June and July 2016. The internship will be unpaid. Student participants will be expected to source funds to cover their own expenses during their internship and to pay a small administrative fee to cover program costs on the ground. As part of the eight week program, students will also engage in group community service activities, weekly feedback and workshop meetings and participate in programs in conjunction with EducationUSA including a college fair and pre-departure orientation. Students will also keep a guided journal to record their experiences during the internship. Career Connect seeks to contextualize the students’ academic experience and aid the student in experiencing life as a professional in Zimbabwe. The program seeks to expose students to fields that vary depending on their individual interests and include but are not limited to biomedical science, computer science, development work, public health, education and environmental studies. The immersive nature of the program will engage students and encourage them to make connections between their coursework, research, community service and place of work. Career Connect is a program of Education Matters, a non-profit trust in Harare, Zimbabwe. Through this program, Education Matters, working closely with EducationUSA at the U.S. Embassy, aims to assist Zimbabwean students studying in the United States to make meaningful connections in order to use the skills and knowledge they gain at university to contribute to positive change at home.