Serve IT offers students the opportunity to use credit hours to put the skills they are learning in school into action with real clients from the local nonprofit community. Students are placed in teams according to interest and skill, and can return semester after semester, building a portfolio that demonstrates both skill and civic-mindedness through service. In addition to the specific skills involved in each real-world project, students develop skills that include professional communications, client, project, and team management—all very difficult to teach in a traditional classroom. If you like working, like making things, and making a positive change for your community, you will love working with Serve IT.
Undergraduate Internships with Serve IT
Interns can get feedback on their work at design critiques (top), work within the community to teach kids technology skills (bottom left), and present projects at our formal end-of-semester event (bottom right).
Course Details
Interested?
Apply NowOur interns come from a diverse set of IU Schools, including the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the Kelley School of Business. Students from other schools are welcome to participate.
How to Apply
Students apply through the link on the link on this page, during the semester before you expect to take the course. Students will be notified by email and given permission to sign up for the course. Applicants who don't make it the first semester are encouraged to apply in future semesters.
Application postings and deadlines:
- For fall applications:
- posted in January, deadlines in early April (check application)
- For spring applications:
- posted in August, deadlines in early November (check application)
Capstone Through Serve IT
Informatics students can do their Capstone through Serve IT if they have first taken at least three credits of INFO I389 in the clinic and performed well. Capstone interns lead teams, manage client relationships (on certain teams), and attend additional leadership meetings and training. Each team is guided by a graduate student who coaches them through the process.
Serve IT Courses
Like other internships in Luddy, Serve IT requires 60 hours per credit hour. Credit hour expectations vary according to the course taken with us:
- INFO I389 (choose between 1-3 credit hours.)
- INFO I489 for Capstone credit (6 total credit hours) (pre-requisite: 3 hours of I389)
- CSCI Y390 (pre-requisite: 3 hours of I389)
- SPEA V381 Undergraduate internship credit
- SPEA V585 Graduate internship credit
1-3credit hours interns may choose
3credits taken prior to be eligible for capstone
60hours of work per credit hour
Our teams
Website Projects & UX Design Teams
Students work in teams to develop sitemaps and wireframes, design pages in Wordpress, develop basic familiarity with security, accessibility, and usability skills, mobile responsiveness, SEO, and use project management tools to guide their work. If students do well on their teams after one semester of practice, students may work directly with clients.
Cybersecurity Team
The Security Team works directly with our client teams to assess and assist with security on our websites and other projects. They attend client meetings, consult on general WordPress and data security for nonprofits, and support client teams with research and development on general security recommendations.
Digital Accessibility Team
The Digital Accessibility Team works directly with the City of Bloomington, helping to assess and report on the digital accessibility of local websites, as part of a larger future effort to increase digital accessibility across the Bloomington area.
Teach IT
Teach IT is one of our largest teams. Teach IT Teams work with local afterschool clubs, developing and delivering fun tech lessons to local youth that align with Indiana K-12 state standards for computer science. If you love working with kids and want to share your love for technology with them, this is your team
E-Waste and Computer Refurbishing Team
This team cleans and refurbishes donated tech equipment, and arranges pickups with local nonprofits who apply, tracking each device in a database in order to report it to our donors.