U.S. ACCION Network Internship

Please click here for the ACCION online application.  Deadline February 15, 2008.

The U.S. ACCION Network Internship is a 10-week internship with domestic ACCION offices for Notre Dame business students who have completed the Junior year. ACCION is a non-profit micro-lending organization with over 40 years experience reducing poverty and creating employment in the Americas.  The mission of ACCION International is to give people the tools they need to work their way out of poverty. By providing "micro" loans and business training to poor women and men who start their own businesses, ACCION's partner lending organizations help people work their own way up the economic ladder, with dignity and pride. With capital, people can grow their own businesses. They can earn enough to afford basics like running water, better food and schooling for their children.

In the United States, ACCION USA works with low and moderate income borrowers who have their own businesses but are economically marginalized and have no access to commercial business loans. They are often unable to afford formal training and frequently have no forum for forming business contacts or receiving peer support. They are single mothers on public assistance and storefront owners with small but well-established businesses. They are immigrants and people whose families have lived in this country for generations.

Students learn about micro-lending through marketing, information sessions, reconciling accounts, meeting with clients and visiting client's places of business. To earn 2 credits in Business and 1 credit in Theology, the Interns complete readings and writing assignments during the summer and make a power point presentation when they return to campus. Participants receive a $3000 tuition scholarship and $1700 housing stipend.

http://www.accionusa.org