How To Turn Your College and Greek Life Experiences into a Summer Internship

Landing your dream college internship is not exactly a walk in the park.

You’ve got the college resume, nailed your interview prep, and spent way too long perfecting that cover letter. Yet somehow, landing that internship still feels out of reach. Many students have valuable experiences and skills from college, but they’re not highlighting them enough to fit what the internship needs.

Here’s how you’re going to start showing off those skills and experiences to help you land an internship:

Actually Get Those College Experiences 

Companies aren’t looking for you to be an expert if you’re applying to be an intern. They want to see if you’ve got any solid experiences they can build on with the internship they’re offering. 

Emma Simpson, early careers talent partner at ISG, says she’d prefer to interview a candidate with a 2.2 who’s been active in student societies and worked part-time, over someone with an outstanding GPA who’s only focused on studying. Besides your grades, recruiters want proof of your skills and potential for success, whether from your social life or work experience.

Right now, if you’re asking Google "how to find internships" or " where to find internships", think about what kind of internships align with your experiences instead. For example, if you're a Philanthropy Chairwoman, you've probably organized events, managed budgets, and worked with different teams—all skills that can apply to event management internships. 

Our social media intern, Lanie Kotler, is the merch coordinator for her Kappa Delta chapter and one of our OG student creators for the FP x Creators lookbook. After our Brand Manager, Casey, chose her to try out our design tool before launch, she realized curating brand imagery through social media was the type of work she wanted. Lanie then contacted Casey to figure out if FP had an internship opportunity around this kind of task. 

This opportunity wouldn’t have happened if Lanie hadn’t taken on the role of merch coordinator.

P.S. We didn’t have a social media internship available, but her initiative and clear vision convinced us to create one just for her.

So if you’re wondering "Can I email places asking for internships when I graduate?", the answer is yes!

Don’t Just Get Involved, Make an Impact

According to Gradireland, just saying you're part of a club or society isn't enough to impress recruiters. You’ve gotta show them real examples of what you did and the impact you had because that’s what they want to see.

When highlighting your accomplishments, make them pop by quantifying them, using action verbs, and tailoring your experience to the internship you're applying for.

For example, if you're applying for a sales assistant internship and want to flex your experiences as a CM, you could say something like:

"As a CM at Fresh Prints, I exceeded quarterly sales goals and closed deals worth $1.3M in revenue. I built strong connections with clients, which led to repeat business and referrals—skills relevant to this internship."

It's all about showing how you made a real impact and giving concrete numbers that help you show that you’re the goat.

Aly Thomas worked as a Campus Manager before she landed the BDM role with us. Her first two semesters were about building relationships, understanding her campus, and refining her sales approach. With a solid strategy and her network in place, she closed enough deals to hit $100k in sales during her third semester. These stories and examples of impact are what recruiters want to hear.

Over the past years, we've worked with over 3,000 college students. Most went on to work for companies like Goldman Sachs, Google, 3M, Deloitte, EY, and more. A few, like Aly, graduated and joined Fresh Prints full-time. This proves you’re actively carving your career path by gaining new experiences on and off campus.

While Aly didn’t go through the usual internship application with us, she still did comprehensive training when she moved from CM to BDM, which served as her internship experience.

Show Your Problem-Solving Skills 

According to Target Jobs, problem-solving is a must-have skill for almost any role, even if it’s not written in their listing. Recruiters wanna know about specific times you proved you can think on your feet. Maybe you fixed something last minute or found a new way to get stuff done—show them you’ve got this workplace skill locked down.

For example, if you're applying for an events management internship and want to show off your experience as a committee member for bid day recruitment, you could say something like:

"As a committee member for Bid Day recruitment, I was in charge of coordinating last-minute changes to the event setup after some suppliers were delayed. I quickly found a new vendor and restructured the schedule on the fly, ensuring everything still ran smoothly. This taught me how to stay calm under pressure, a skill I know would be super useful in an events management role."

This shows you’re not just good at rolling with the punches, but also know how to step up when things go off track. That’s a huge green flag for an internship (or life in general tbh).

For Aly, her problem-solving skills kicked in during her second year when she realized she needed to get ahead of big orders, like Bid Day recruitment orders, if she wanted to stay on track. The previous year, she struggled with getting everything done on time, so she started reaching out to clients much earlier—starting as soon as February for Fall Recruitment. 

By planning ahead and building stronger relationships early, Aly could smooth out the process, avoid last-minute stress, and ensure everything was ready when high-stakes orders rolled in.

Tailor Your Resume

According to US News, tailoring your application helps recruiters see a clear connection between your skills and experiences and their needs. It also shows them you've taken the time to research and understand the role. Help them help you, bestie.

Sending out generic applications, thinking you’re casting a wide net, doesn’t work. It just shows you’re applying to anything and everything, which is cringe and can hurt your chances of landing an internship. 

If you're applying for a finance internship, and you want to highlight your experience as apparel chair in your chapter, you could write this on your resume:

Apparel Chair – [Your Chapter Name]

• Managed a budget of $X for chapter apparel and merchandise, ensuring all purchases aligned with financial constraints.
• Negotiated with vendors to secure the best deals, saving the chapter $X in costs.
• Analyzed sales data to predict demand for apparel items and forecast inventory needs, improving sales by X%.

We all know those are not the only tasks apparel chairs do. They also coordinate with suppliers, lead the art direction for their chapter’s merch, and market it to everyone. These skills are super valuable, but they might not match the finance internship they’re applying for. 

Need more help perfecting your resume and cover letter? Check out our article on that here.

Slay Your Interviews

Once you’ve got recruiters hooked by following all the tips above, you’re probably landing that interview (congrats in advance!). Not to freak you out, but this is your time to really show up and crush it.

Before you hop on that interview, make sure you know the company, the interviewer, and what the position’s all about. Almost 50% of applicants miss out on offers because they don’t know enough about the company. Don’t be that person, do your homework.

You also want to prep and practice your answers for common interview questions like:

• Why do you want to join our company?
• What skills do you bring to the job?
• What do you expect to learn from this internship?
• Tell us about a time when you took initiative and led a team.
• Tell us about a time you overcame a challenge.
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Learn more about nailing your internship interview here.

And there you have it—everything you need to market those college or Greek life experiences and land your dream internship. Show ‘em what you’re made of!