About Us

Berkshire Interns places college students and recent college graduates in paid summer internships at leading Berkshire County businesses. The program serves regional businesses, college students with an affinity to the Berkshire region, regional colleges, and the Berkshire community at large.

Our Sponsors:

The Berkshire United Way’s mission is to improve the quality of life in Berkshire county by mobilizing resources to address community priorities and create sustainable change.

Lever, Inc. is an economic development incubator in North Adams, MA. Since 2014, Lever has hosted more than 30 college interns, who have supported Lever’s mission with a variety of projects.

The Berkshire Workforce Board is building tomorrow’s workforce by providing leadership for workforce development and aligning education and training with local labor market needs.

Partner Colleges:

Berkshire Interns

Berkshire Interns places college students and recent college graduates in paid summer internships at leading Berkshire County businesses. The program serves regional businesses, college students with an affinity to the Berkshire region, regional colleges, and the Berkshire community at large. Participating Berkshire employers benefit from access to new talent that could be integrated into their permanent workforces. Students receive hands-on career development experience plus an inside track for Berkshire County jobs. BI helps local colleges expand their students’ access to career opportunities. BI’s workforce development helps lift the regional economy.

Participating student interns are employed directly by host companies and are paid Massachusetts minimum wage or better for at least ten weeks of full-time summer work. Lever staff facilitates these internships beginning-to-end. We recruit employers and help them develop opportunities that will be attractive to college students. We recruit applicants at local and regional college campuses, and we market these opportunities at campuses around the country. We facilitate employer selection and on-boarding of interns. We provide a two-day intern training program to prepare students for success in the workplace. We support both employers and interns during the internship period with regular check-ins and weekly social programming. We monitor intern performance, intern experience and employer experience with a variety of metrics, including the Massachusetts Work-Based Learning Plan. BI hosts an end-of-summer awards banquet that is attended by interns and their employers. We keep in touch with BI alumni and help them to find additional work opportunities in the Berkshires.

Our Team:

Jade Schnauber

BI is led by Workforce Programs Manager, Jade Schnauber. Herself a summer 2018 Berkshire Intern, Jade now oversees all aspects of the BI and BE program and is the chief architect of the workforce programs. She resides in Pittsfield, MA and holds a B.A. in Sociology from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Jeffrey Thomas

The program was founded by Lever’s Executive Director Jeffrey Thomas. Jeffrey has served as an adjunct professor at Williams College since 2006 and has worked with hundreds of Williams students interested in entrepreneurship. Since its 2014 launch, Lever has hosted more than 40 paid student interns, most of whom were supervised by Jeffrey.

Avril Levesque

Avril supports fundraising, grant development, Lever events, and Lever workforce programs. A Berkshire County native and a recent graduate, Avril holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Eastern Connecticut State University.