The Georgetown University Student Association Summer Fellows program has doubled the number of fellowships it will be offering for the upcoming summer.

Created by former GUSA President Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) last Spring, the program will expand to offer ten undergraduate students, working in unpaid jobs or internships, free university housing this summer.

The program, which began as one of Dowd’s campaign promises, will offer students free on-campus housing for 10 weeks, from May 30 to Aug. 8. The location of the housing will be determined by the number of males and females accepted to the program.

According to Walid Khalifeh (SFS ’09), former GUSA chief of staff and current chair of the GUSA Summer Fellows Steering Committee, the GUSA Senate has decided to expand the program permanently in response to the highly positive reaction it received last summer.

“Through last year’s pilot program we realized that there are many strong and qualified applicants that could benefit from the program,” Khalifeh said. “This time around with a number of leadership initiatives in place for the program, we see 10 as a good number both to work with, focus on and fund.”

The Summer Fellows program will also broaden to include leadership training.

“I am currently in talks with [administrators from the McDonough School of Business] to provide our fellows with leadership workshops modeled after Georgetown’s Executive MBA program to provide Georgetown undergrads with something that is both tangible and above and beyond what they might receive as undergrads,” Khalifeh said.

While he is unsure of the exact leadership opportunities that will be available, Khalifeh said that he is also considering collaborating with the Gervase Program.

“We wanted to do something that would improve the experience of Georgetown students,” Dowd said. “It is expensive to live in Georgetown for the summer and unfortunately for a lot of students, that dream of having a summer internship is not possible because their parents cannot spend the thousands of dollars it costs to live here.”

Funding for the program, which costs $26,000, will not come from GUSA’s budget. According to Dowd, the Summer Fellows program has received funding from two private sources.

“This [donation] not only demonstrates the value and strength of the program, but also the value our donors have seen in the program and their willingness to support it even during a financial crisis,” Khalifeh said.

Both Dowd and Khalifeh said that they would like to see the program grow to its fullest potential in upcoming years.

“Optimally I would like to see it as a group of students that connect with each other and in the future give back to the Georgetown community,” Khalifeh said. “It would be great if we had a network of Summer Fellows down the road, but at this point, I believe it is important to make sure that we provide the best possible program for this year.”

Applications, which are due on April 17th, are handled by a committee of seven faculty members and the GUSA Summer Fellows Steering Committee.

“We want to see how well the quality of the internships and how well those internships relate to the students’ career goals and their studies at Georgetown,” Dowd said.

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