SCHEV Awards UMW Grant to Showcase Internships and Work-Based Learning
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) awarded $1.6 million in grants to seven institutions of higher education recently to enhance their capacity to track, analyze and report on internships and other work-based learning experiences campuswide.
The University of Mary Washington was one of the institutions to receive up to $100,000 annually for two years to establish or strengthen data collection systems and allow it to track student participation in work-based learning. The collected data will give better visibility on student engagement, access and success.
“This grant will help us to build internal processes for analyzing our internship data and telling the narratives that emerge,” said Kimberly Young, UMW associate provost for career and workforce.
The grants are administered by SCHEV through the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP), which is funded by the General Assembly’s Commonwealth Innovative Internship Fund and Program.
“High quality data helps us make more informed decisions as we work to increase the number of internships and other work-based learning opportunities in Virginia,” said Scott Fleming, SCHEV executive director.
SCHEV named UMW to its 2026 Top Virginia Employers for Interns list earlier this month, recognizing the University’s efforts to establish high-impact, career-launching opportunities across the Commonwealth. A week later, SCHEV shared its Top 50 list of Virginia interns, which included four Mary Washington students.
The University’s Life After Mary Washington initiative weaves the concept of career readiness into the fabric of the UMW experience. By the time they graduate, more than 30 percent of all UMW students have completed some type of internship.
This most recent SCHEV funding also went to Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Southern Virginia University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech. The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) received up to $200,000 annually over the same period.
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