Bethany Suliguin ’27 was eating dinner before a rehearsal for the Sympoh dance show “Jailbreak” when she received an email from the National Institute of Health (NIH) that the agency would not be conducting internship interviews or extending offers.
Suliguin had already received an offer to conduct research at the NIH Clinical Center. But she learned just three weeks later that the NIH would not be able to take her as a paid summer intern, or even a volunteer. Now, Suliguin will be conducting research at a lab at Yonsei University in Korea.
In the wake of a federal hiring freeze and broader turmoil in the federal government, many students are having to rethink their summer internship plans.
Among those most affected is the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI). Each year, this competitive initiative offers an internship program to six to 10 undergraduates in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), each of whom are personally advised by the SINSI director in finding a summer internship in public service. SINSI also offers a graduate program for first years in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree program, where accepted students go on to conduct two years of service in a federal program and return to Princeton for another year to complete their MPA.
Internship acceptances had not yet been extended, so while SINSI students did not lose already-offered positions, they were forced to pivot to different government and service internships, as many they had applied to had been cancelled.
On Jan. 20, the day of the hiring freeze, Samuel Kligman ’26 received around 10 to 15 emails from various agencies through USA Jobs, the federal government’s job application portal. He was notified that the opportunities he had applied to had either been canceled or would no longer be offered.
“That was definitely a difficult day … [I] had to adopt a glass half-full mindset,” Kligman told The Daily Princetonian. He is currently in the process of looking for another internship.
SINSI Director Gregory Jaczko has also had to pivot.
“This year, because there have not been as many opportunities in the federal government for internships, we have looked primarily to state and local governments, as well as multinational governments for internships,” Jaczko said.
Referring to organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, Jaczko said that SINSI will be “working, certainly, to establish relationships with those organizations so that students that have an interest in international development and international relations have an opportunity in some of these other organizations.”
Jaczko also shared that “the defense and national security areas don’t seem to be as strongly impacted by the hiring freeze. In fact, the original executive order excluded a lot of defense and national security apparatus, which is not atypical … We have interns who will likely go to the Department of Defense [DOD], for instance.”
Michelle Miao ’26, who initially sought to apply for a position in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, is among those looking at the DOD for internships.
Miao is a former staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’
In addition to the DOD, Miao will now also be searching for internship prospects at the Department of Homeland Security for a “valuable summer experience.”
“The agencies still functioning normally are the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. It’s worked out nicely because I’m also interested and have experience with foreign policy and security,” Miao stated.
Thomas Emens ’25, who will be a graduate fellow for SINSI, shared with the ‘Prince’ that the internship he did last year at the Department of Energy no longer exists.
“I’ve been in touch with people I used to work with in the Department of Energy. My supervisor is still there, but [for] people within the Community Jobs and Justice team, two have left under Trump, and the others were reassigned,” Emens said. “An opportunity to do an internship again with that particular team in that particular office won’t be available.”
Emens expressed that he believes this event may allow SINSI to “grow and broaden its focus.”
“There’s a real need across the country for people that have invested all of themselves in service that want to make a genuine difference, and there’s a big need for that at the sub-national level, at the state level, and the local level,” he explained. “Hopefully, the silver lining in all this could be: SINSI [fellows] are going to be making a difference in places where they otherwise wouldn't go.”
Jaczko shared a similar optimistic outlook. “It’s given SINSI a stronger motivation to reach out and establish relationships with some of these other organizations that we have not traditionally had interns or fellows serve in, in order to give them new opportunities, and then potentially to provide a new pathway for students in the SINSI program.”
Olin Zimmet ’26, a SINSI scholar who will be working with the Alaska state government, believes that students who want to work in service will adapt, regardless of where they work.
“I think that I will get so much out of this state-level stuff. And I think the same of my six colleagues — whatever they’re doing, they’re going to do some wonderful things,” he said. “And at the end of the day, service is service. You can attach the name, federal, state, whatever, to it. But people that want to serve in some form of government will serve, and folks that want to serve will.”
Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS), housed in the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, also had to cancel a large number of internships and job postings.
In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill, on behalf of PICS, wrote that 10 positions across six federal agencies offered through PICS have been canceled.
“PICS hopes to work with these agencies for summer 2026, and our office will remain in communication with our contacts,” she wrote. “Students who applied to any positions that are no longer available are eligible and have been encouraged to apply for an internship during the second round of Pace Center Summer Service Internship applications.”
Correction: a previous version of this article said that Samuel Kligman had received emails from the U.S. Agency of International Development on Jan. 20. In fact, he received notification from a number of agencies through USA Jobs. The ‘Prince’ regrets this error.
Luke Grippo is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey and usually covers administrative issues, including Undergraduate Student Government, the Council of the Princeton University Community, and institutional legacy.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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