The Conference on Asian Pacific Asian Leadership (CAPAL) is proud to announce its Summer Internship Program for current undergraduate and graduate students to work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development. This program will select two interns to work during the summer. Interns will receive a $2,000 stipend towards the successful completion of their summer internship and the development of a Community Action Plan. An additional $500 stipend will be given to help cover travel and housing expenses.
Rural Development achieves its mission by helping rural individuals, communities and businesses obtain the financial and technical assistance needed to address their diverse and unique needs. Rural Development works to make sure that rural citizens can participate fully in the global economy.
Their financial programs support such essential public facilities and services as water and sewer systems, housing, health clinics, emergency service facilities and electric and telephone service. They promote economic development by supporting loans to businesses through banks and community-managed lending pools. Moreover, Rural Development programs offer technical assistance and information to help agricultural and other cooperatives get started and improve the effectiveness of their member services. The programs also provide technical assistance to help communities undertake community empowerment programs.
Rural development work is focused in the following areas:
Business Programs
The Business Programs (BP) provide help to rural areas that need to develop new job opportunities, allowing businesses and cooperatives to remain viable in a changing economy. BP works in partnership with the private sector and the community-based organizations to provide financial assistance and business planning. BP helps fund projects that create or preserve quality jobs and/or promote a clean rural environment. The financial resources of BP are often leveraged with those of other public and private credit source lenders to meet business and credit needs in under-served areas.
Community Development Program
The Community Development Program administers rural community development programs within USDA Rural Development. Each program and initiative promotes self-sustaining, long-term economic and community development in rural areas. The programs demonstrate how every rural community can achieve self-sufficiency through innovative and comprehensive strategic plans developed and implemented at a grassroots level.
Housing Programs
The Housing Programs addressed rural America’s need for single-family and multi-family housing as well as health facilities, fire and police stations, and other community facilities. The programs provide a number of homeownership opportunities to rural Americans, as well as programs for home renovation and repair. HCFP also makes financing available to elderly, disabled, or low-income rural residents of multi-unit housing buildings to ensure they are able to make rent payments.
Utilities Programs
The Utilities Programs addresses rural America’s need for basic services such as clean running water, sewers and waste disposal, electricity, and telecommunications. The programs carry on a tradition of helping rural utilities expand and keep their technology up to date, helping establish new and vital services such as distance learning and telemedicine.
The online application is available here. All supporting materials must be submitted electronically to scholarships@capal.org by March 9, 2012.
Email your questions to scholarships@capal.org
