Staff Editorial

Editorial Board of The Lawrentian

At the beginning of Winter Term, the Conservatory of Music proudly launched its new program: Conservatory Squared. Conservatory Squared gives students internship opportunities for the summer, which are funded and organized by the university. The program was launched in response to student feedback asking to expand programs like the LU-R1 program for the sciences.

With Conservatory Squared, students can apply for internships with the New York Jazz Academy, Carnegie Hall and Deep Listening Institute. The funding for this new program was provided by the Olga Herberg Administrative Trust.

We at The Lawrentian are thrilled about this new program, but we wish that there were more organized opportunities like this for students across all departments, such as students studying the humanities and social sciences. Currently, LU-R1 and Conservatory Squared only cater to science and music students. These programs are wonderful for the students they do serve, but they do not relate to a wide variety of majors — even though Conservatory Squared is open to non-music majors.

The Career Center offers help to all students looking for internships, but it does not provide students with a funded internship program sponsored by Lawrence. Internships are a vital part of a student’s undergraduate education. However, they can be extremely hard to organize and find funding for, even with the guidance of the Career Center.

The humanities departments lack a centralized internship program like Conservatory Squared, so students are left on their own to organize such opportunities. We at The Lawrentian believe that all hardworking and high achieving students regardless of major should have access to programs similar to LU-R1 and Conservatory Squared. Perhaps Lawrence could become affiliated with graduate institutions to expand internship opportunities for undergrad students in the humanities and social sciences.

We are excited about the new Conservatory Squared program and the unique opportunities it brings to Lawrence students, but in the future, we would like to see more programs like Conservatory Squared developed for the rest of the student body.