Beginning in 2004, the Russell and Josephine Kott Charitable Trust has provided paid internships to advanced graduate students with a focus on aging and who are attending Chicago-area universities. The Kott Gerontology Institute administers the internship program. The intent of the Kott Gerontology Scholars Program is to encourage and support graduate students in a variety of professional specializations to develop skills that will prepare them to continue working with older adults after graduation.
Scholarship Terms: Kott Gerontology Scholar Program provides a $10,000 scholarship for a complete academic year, paid directly to interns’ universities for deposit into their personal student accounts in three equal payments. Interns are expected to be registered as full-time students during their internships. Partial and part-year scholarships are not offered. The funds are for use by individual Kott Gerontology Scholars to defray academic expenses, including tuition, loan repayment and other expenses. It is the responsibility of interns to ensure that payments are deposited into their accounts by their respective universities. Interns are required to participate in no less than 720 hours of on-site field experience, regardless of the field work requirements of their respective academic institutions. Interns will not receive field credit from consortium agencies until these hours have been completed in total. Interns who fail to receive a passing grade in their field experience from their respective academic institutions for any grading period, withdraw from or change academic programs, voluntarily withdraw from the Kott Gerontology Scholars Program, fail to maintain adequate placement hours to complete the internship academic year, or are terminated by their consortium agency for any reason, will not receive the balance of any remaining scholarship payments. Internship site assignments are the responsibility of consortium members, who take into consideration agency needs, interns’ preferences, and commuting time in making assignments.
