The HNGR Internship
A six-month service-learning internship in the Global South is at the heart of the HNGR experience. Three essential elements of all HNGR internships are:

• Cross-cultural experience. Broaden your vision of the world through immersion in your host culture
  
  
• Service. Gain experience in development work by volunteering in projects that further your host organization’s work and mission
  
  
• An academic project. Engage intellectually with global challenges, and integrate your major into your internship experience
  

Past internships have included, but are not limited to, projects in:

• Art/music therapy
• Church development
• Community health
• Economic development/microenterprise
• Education
• Environmental stewardship
• Ethnomusicology
• HIV/AIDS
• Housing and property rights
• Human trafficking/gender equality
• Indigenous arts and crafts
• Justice, human rights, and legal advocacy
• Rural/agricultural development
• Water and sanitation
• Youth/child development
  

For more details, see the Internships page.

-top-

Participants
Before they are approved for HNGR internships, students are carefully screened to ensure adequate maturity, proper motivation, and intellectual preparation. Applicants will need some cross-cultural preparation and language study, though lack of these will not automatically preclude acceptance to the Program. HNGR Certificate candidates must complete 16-18 credit hours of preparatory coursework before the internship. To be eligible to apply, students must have a minimum GPA of 2.8. All majors are welcome to apply.

Host Organizations and Placement
HNGR's global partners include non-governmental organizations that are both internationally and domestically initiated. They are usually faith-based entities, and all are committed to holistic transformational development. Ideally, HNGR seeks to place interns with community-based initiatives that have grown around a local vision and have indigenous leadership.

Interns are placed through an intentional, discernment process that seeks to integrate the student’s particular interests and the resources and opportunities provided by host organizations.  The placement process begins during the fall semester of the junior year and concludes sometime around mid-late spring semester.

-top-

HNGR Program Timeline
Though HNGR is not a major, participation in the Program significantly shapes the course of a student's four years at Wheaton. HNGR internships are 6 months (25 weeks) in duration. Students depart for their internships early in the summer following their junior year, and generally return between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Freshman Year
            Stop by the HNGR office for an informal inquiry meeting
            Take HNGR 112, Third World Issues

Sophomore Year
            Application process
            HNGR preparatory coursework
            Plan remaining HNGR course schedule

Junior Year
            HNGR preparatory coursework
            Internship placement process
            Retreat for outgoing interns

Senior Year—Summer and Fall
            Depart for internship
            Internship coursework
            Independent study project
            Advisory visit

Senior Year—Spring      
            Retreat for returned interns
            Capstone Integration Seminar
            HNGR Chapel Presentation
            Submit independent study
            HNGR Certificate Celebration

-top-