ProPublica hires intern to investigate 'intern economy'

• The internship came from a month-long campaign on Kickstarter%2C where more than 700 people donated nearly %2424%2C000
• Recent Penn State grad Casey McDermott chosen from among 80 applicants

Casey McDermott, a recent Pennsylvania State University graduate, has heard stories from friends about their unpaid internships. She's done a few stipend-only internships herself, and she's written an article on the intern economy for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Now, thanks to a highly publicized Kickstarter campaign by non-profit investigative group ProPublica, she'll be traveling the country doing more reporting on unpaid internships as — yes, that's right — an intern herself.

"My proximity to this, just being straight out of a college, gives me a little more of an on-the-ground perspective of understanding how this affects this generation in particular," said McDermott, who graduated in May with degrees in journalism and sociology. During her senior year, she was the editor in chief of Penn State's student newspaper, The Daily Collegian.

The internship came from a month-long campaign on Kickstarter, where more than 700 people donated nearly $24,000 to fund a ProPublica investigation into the "intern economy."

Blair Hickman, ProPublica's community editor who managed the crowdfunding campaign and will help supervise McDermott, said unpaid internships have been on the minds of the website's editors for a while. Coupled with her interest in finding a way to leverage Kickstarter for ProPublica's reporting, Hickman thought it would be best to hire an intern to go on the road and learn about the expanding presence of unpaid interns.

"We wanted to see if an intern could bring a perspective to this story that someone who had been out of school for a while might not have," Hickman said.

ProPublica received more than 80 applications for the internship, which pays $700 per week. Looking at her clips, resume and personality for on-air reporting, ProPublica decided on McDermott.

"There were about four frontrunners, but Casey had a unique mix of experience, and she was really passionate about this," Hickman said.

That experience comes in the form of three prior internships (including one with USA TODAY in 2011).

In her current internship at The Chronicle of Higher Education, McDermott wrote about the relationship between colleges and unpaid internships, a topic she said she's excited to learn more about while reporting for ProPublica.

She also wants to spend time writing about how unpaid interns affect lower-income students and the characteristics of rising entry-level employees. The two, she said, could be related.

"There are a lot of inequality issues that are really worth exploring, in terms of who is left out of this process because they can't accept the position or don't bother applying because they don't think they can't afford it, and what kind of implications that has for someone in their career advancement or, on a larger level, looking at an entry-level position," McDermott said.

Though her route across the country hasn't been decided yet, McDermott will interview employers, career counselors and unpaid interns about their experiences and the larger economic impacts of unpaid internships. She will blog frequently about her experience, posting at least once per day, Hickman said. Hickman sees McDermott as not just a reporter covering internships, but also a personality to follow online and an expert on the topic.

McDermott will also supplement ProPublica's New York-based coverage of the issue with stories from the places she visits. A team of four will be assigned to cover unpaid internships from New York, Hickman said, because of the practice's rising relevance to the country's labor force.

"The number of internships in the U.S. has ballooned over the past few decades," ProPublica wrote in its Kickstarter description, "with one recent study estimating more than 50 percent of graduating seniors holding some sort of internship during their time at school."

Many of the Kickstarter's supporters donated small amounts of cash, often less than $5. This led Hickman to wonder how many of the donations came from people who were unpaid interns themselves.

For McDermott, she says those donations meant a chance to add to the national dialogue on a topic she's passionate about, and she hopes to come away with original findings about it.

"There is a lot of responsibility that comes with this position," she said. "I don't take it lightly that I'm there because of the help and support, and financial contributions, of all of the people who have said this is an issue that needs to be looked at more closely."