Students

Build Your Career in the Arts

Regardless of what you’re studying at Meadows, we want you to graduate feeling confident and prepared in pursuit of your career goals. In partnership with the SMU Hegi Family Career Development Center, the Meadows Office of Alumni and Career Success (ACS) offers resources, events and programs to assist students in building self-sustaining careers in the arts, media, design and communications.  

NETWORK WITH SMU ALUMNI

The Hegi Center now offers Meadows Career Success Appointments exclusively to Meadows graduate and undergraduate majors and pre-majors.

This hour-long career counseling appointment includes:

  • a networking tutorial
  • career path exploration, and
  • matching with a Meadows Mentor – an alum who is willing to provide industry-specific career guidance by reviewing a résumé or offering a 30-minute virtual informational interview.

  1. Visit smu.edu/12twenty and login with SMU credentials
  2. Select Appointments from the left navigation panel
  3. Select Hegi Family Career Development Center from the Career Center drop-down menu
  4. Select Hegi Meadows Career Success from the Appointment Type drop-down menu

Need additional assistance? Contact us at meadowscareer@smu.edu.

Book An Appointment


Internships

Internships – particularly paid internships – are a direct path to future job offers. Check out some of the internship programs that are currently facilitated by the Meadows Office of Alumni and Career Success and the Hegi Family Career Development Center.

Paid Internships Reserved Exclusively for Meadows Undergrads

The PMC Foundation Intern Fellowship program subsidizes five paid internships – reserved exclusively for Meadows undergraduate students – at Dallas-based arts, communication and media organizations. These internships will run 15 hours per week for 10 weeks (June through early August 2025) and will offer compensation of $20 per hour (an approximate total of $3,000 for each internship).

To be eligible, student applicants must:

  • Be an undergraduate with plans to enroll during the fall 2025 term (May 2025 graduates are ineligible)
  • Have a declared major in one of the Meadows School’s nine areas of study

Summer 2025 Internships Include:

  • Business Council For The Arts Logo

    Business Council for the Arts | Programs Internship

    Programs Internship Open to majors in Advertising, Art, Art History, CCPA and/or Journalism

  • D-Magazine Logo

    D Magazine | Editorial Intern

    Open to majors in Journalism

  • Dallas Film Logo

    Dallas Film Society | Dallas International Film Festival | Programming Assistant

    Open to majors in Advertising, CCPA, Film & Media Arts and/or Journalism

  • Lerma Logo

    LERMA Agency | Brand Strategy Intern

    Open to majors in Advertising, CCPA, Film & Media Arts and/or Journalism

  • Nasher Logo

    Nasher Sculpture Center | External Affairs Intern

    Open to majors in Advertising, Art, Art History and/or CCPA

Applications Open Monday, February 17
Subscribe to receive notification via email when applications go live.


Hegi Career Development Center Internships
The Hegi Family Career Development Center hosts two unique internship programs for SMU undergraduate students, the Engage Dallas Internship Program and the Achieving Career Competence, Exposure, and Strategies for Success (ACCESS) Internship Program. These programs are tailored to provide students from diverse backgrounds with hands-on experience with a local DFW area organization offered by private companies and nonprofit organizations. Plus, if you're passionate about social impact, some nonprofit internships even come with funding assistance.

Achieving Career Competence, Exposure, and Strategies for Success (ACCESS) Internship
Designed for students with diverse identities, this paid summer internship program matches students with an internship with one of the Hegi Center’s partner organizations. In previous years, internships were offered with several local arts organizations, including the Dallas Symphony Association, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Engage Dallas Internship Program
Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU's Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas. The Engage Dallas Internship Program is a resource exclusively for SMU students completing summer internships at nonprofits and other organizations that typically offer unpaid internships. 

These are 10-week, paid summer internship programs where students will work on average 15 hours per week. Students are paid four times throughout the duration of the internship. Internship applications will open on Friday, February 21. Learn more about the Engage Dallas and ACCESS internship programs and application process.

Obtain Funding for an Unpaid Internship
SMU has several programs that award funding students who have acquired an unpaid internship from a nonprofit or government organization. Students must apply to receive funding, which is available on a limited basis.

Apply for Internship Funding through the Hegi Center

The Hegi Family Career Development Center has limited funding available to compensate students who have accepted an unpaid internship offer serving a nonprofit, government or social impact organization. Applicants must be full-time students who intend to enroll for the fall 2025 term. Applications for summer 2025 internship funding open in mid-March. Applicants will be required to submit an internship offer letter and submit a short-answer survey. Contact Assistant Director of Employer Relations David Sommers at sommersd@smu.edu for more information.

SMU Maguire Ethics Center’s Public Service Fellowship
This fellowship is designed for students to engage in ethics or public responsibility-related work and/or research. All full-time SMU undergraduate and graduate students with a GPA of 3.0 or better are eligible to apply. Students must be returning to campus for the fall 2024 semester. Fellows must complete at least 200 hours of service during the course of the project. Applications for summer 2025 funding open on Monday, March 10 and will close on Monday, April 14. Read more about this fellowship and apply for funding.

Access the SMU Meadows Network

Harness the power of your network by exploring these platforms:

SMU Meadows Network on LinkedIn
A closed group of more than 2,400 alumni, students, faculty and staff that features job postings, alumni news and school announcements. Administrative approval is required to join.

Join the Meadows Network

The SMU Network
Exclusive to SMU alumni and students, this platform allows members to designate themselves as “willing to help” others with their careers, taking some of the guesswork out of your networking efforts.

Join the SMU Network

Digital Career Counselor
SMU students now have access to a new career development resource through the University’s Steppingblocks platform. This digital career counselor can help you explore majors, identify companies hiring within your area of study, view salaries, and more. Your SMU ID and password are required to login.

Access Steppingblocks 


Contact Us

We’d be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch with the Office of Alumni and Career Success.