How one first-gen is leading the charge to end unpaid internships

When Carlos Mark Vera accepted an internship on Capitol Hill as a college freshman, he struggled to explain to his parents that it would be unpaid.

“It was very interesting trying to teach that to my immigrant parents,” says Vera, who moved from Colombia to the United States with his family when he was five years old. “Like, ‘What do you mean you’re going to be working all these hours, getting into debt, with no pay?’”

That summer, Vera took a part-time job to cover some of the costs of living in Washington, D.C., one of the most expensive cities in the United States . As he juggled his internship, his job and some summer classes, he recalls constantly fighting the urge to fall asleep throughout the day.?

The 28-year old is now co-founder of Pay Our Interns , a non-profit organization created in 2016 that is fighting for the implementation of paid internships across the country. While institutions like the White House have been pushed to finally pay their interns, over one-third of internships in the United States are unpaid . Unpaid internships raise major challenges for students, especially those who are part of underrepresented or marginalized groups. This week on The Starting Line, we spoke with Vera about how unpaid internships can affect first-gen students and professionals, who are already underrepresented in the internship world , and the kinds of changes he and his team are fighting for.?

Unpaid doesn’t mean free

Many professionals came up in a “pay your dues and hustle” kind of culture, according to Vera, and unpaid internships were perceived as a required sacrifice made in exchange for work experience. But those who aren’t able to take on unpaid work are put at a professional disadvantage from the start.

“Unpaid internships are actually not free,” Vera says. “Because someone has to pay a price for it. Usually it’s the parents, which comes down to wealth.”

Vera recalls friends who couldn’t afford to accept unpaid internships working instead at blue-collar jobs over the summer to make ends meet. When graduation came around, they struggled to find full-time work because of the lack of internship experience on their resumes.?

“Nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to get a job in any field without having that experience,” he says.?

You deserve to be paid —?and more

As an intern, you may feel an obligation to stay quiet in the presence of those with more experience. For first-gen students, who are already prone to impostor syndrome, it can be especially difficult to ask for support.

Moving past that hesitation is the first step to breaking down career hurdles for marginalized groups, says Vera. Interns should not only raise their voices and ask to be compensated for their work, Vera argues, they should also feel empowered to ask for housing assistance and other benefits.?

“You’ve already lost when you haven’t even tried,” emphasizes Vera.

You never know until you ask

When Vera arrived at American University’s campus in Washington, D.C. in 2011 to start his first semester, it was his first time seeing the school in person. Although he had been admitted his senior year of high school, he couldn’t afford to attend an admitted students event.?

Years later, when he worked at the school’s center for diversity and inclusion, he received an email from a mother in Texas whose daughter had been accepted to the school. They were excited to hear about an admitted students’ weekend but, like Vera, couldn’t cover the cost of flying out. The mother asked if there was any way the school could assist with those fees. To Vera’s surprise, his boss said they could cover round-trip flights for mother and daughter.?

It was an important lesson for Vera, who now encourages his peers and fellow first-gens to ask for help when it’s needed, even when it feels unlikely to yield much.. If an opportunity you’re interested in is advertised as unpaid, reach out to the hiring manager and see if there’s room for compensation. More often than not, the answer will surprise you, Vera says.?

“It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?” he says. “Advocate for yourself, or start learning how to.”