
Our Internship Partners and Sponsors

About the Tjuana Byrd Summer Internship Program
The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas is proud to launch the third annual 2023 Tjuana Byrd Summer Internship Program, named after the Foundation’s first Black president. In partnership with several companies located in Arkansas, we will be offering a 10-week summer internship program for women of color attending college in Arkansas and pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (finance & related majors included). Thanks to the companies’ commitment to equity and generosity, the internship will pay $15-20 an hour*, provide free housing for the duration of the program, access to mentorship and networking events, and professional development workshops. Company executives have also agreed to participate in diversity, equity and inclusion training provided by the WFA prior to the program. Our internship program is intentionally designed to increase access to and representation in these fields for women of color in our state by eliminating barriers of cost, social capital, and location.
*dependent on company placement
Applications for our 2023 Tjuana Byrd Summer Internship closed on January 27, 2023.
General Internship Details
- Each company will host interns and pay $15-20 an hour, depending on company
- 4 bedroom apartments will be provided by WFA for each company’s intern cohort for the duration of the program
- Weekly networking events will be hosted by partner companies & other community sponsors
- WFA will provide professional development workshops prior to and during the internship program
- Interns will receive the opportunity to present to each company at the end of the program
- The 10-week program will run from approximately June 2, 2023 – August 11, 2023
Internship Eligibility
Students eligible to apply will:
- Identify as a woman
- Be a person of color and/or of a minority race or ethnicity
- Pursuing a 2-year or 4-year degree in the fields of science, technology, engineering, & math (finance & related majors included)
- Information on relevant majors per company & department is below
- Attending university in the state of Arkansas
- A rising junior, senior, or recent graduate (no sooner than May 2023)
Internship Application
Before applying, please read the company information to learn more about which companies would be the best fit for your skills, education, and career goals.
For the application you will need:
- A copy of your resume
- Unofficial transcripts from all universities where you have completed coursework
- Two recommendations (preferably from someone familiar with you in an academic setting & another from someone familiar with you in a professional setting)
Specific Company Information
Find more information about each specific company and internship below. The available internship positions are highlighted in yellow.
Acxiom is a Conway, Arkansas-based database marketing company. The company collects, analyzes and sells customer and business information used for targeted advertising campaigns. Their job opportunities will give you the opportunity to showcase your talents, grow your skills, and expose you to cutting-edge technologies, whether you’re an engineer, developer, products guru, systems and security expert or an intern looking to gain real experience with a company that will make you stand out.
** Acxiom is only hosting rising juniors and seniors in college, not recent graduates**
Available Internship Positions at Acxiom
Database Administrator – The Database Administrator (DBA) Intern creates, maintains, designs, monitors and resolves problems within Acxiom or client databases. As a DBA Intern, you will use
specific relational database management systems, develop and implement database
recovery mechanisms and procedures, and coordinate security measures to safeguard
database integrity.
Preferred Major/Minor: Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related major
Accreditation:
Decision Support Analyst – Decision Support Analyst assists clients with defining business solutions as well as campaign management. By fully understanding details of the client’s data and Acxiom’s marketing capabilities, you will ensure our clients receive accurately segmented, cleansed, formatted and ready-to-market data. You will implement and analyze decision support processes and data to measure campaign efficiency, data accuracy, data integrity, operations performance, customer happiness, and cost-effectiveness. You will also propose solutions to support various technical operations and ensure client satisfaction through research, trouble shooting, application
administration, application user training, and code changes.
Preferred Major/Minor: Information Systems, Business Data Analytics, or a related major
Accreditation:
Solution Developer – The Solution Developer Intern works on Acxiom and third-party software to build
solutions for business problems defined by specific business requirements. In this internship, you will tackle real-time platform problems for our clients’ solutions. You may configure or tune software, work on automation processes to tie components together, develop custom application code to accommodate defined requirements, or collaborate with others to add extensions to existing Acxiom software. You may also provide new development, ongoing maintenance, and support and optimization of solutions for the account teams you are supporting. You will have opportunities to learn a variety of platforms and solve different kinds of problems throughout the internship.
Preferred Major/Minor: Computer Science, Management Information Systems or a related major
Accreditation:
Technical Support Analyst – The Command Center provides operational support for Acxiom’s critical services and products in a 24/7 model support. A Technical Support Analyst is responsible for monitoring Acxiom’s environments: applications, devices, and security threats. As part of the Command Center, you’ll provide end-to-end Incident Management and coordinate cross functional efforts to ensure complete service restoration for our clients and systems. Responsible for protecting both online and on-premise infrastructures, monitoring data to identify suspicious activity, and identifying and mitigating risks.
Preferred Major/Minor: Information Technology, Computer Science, or Management Information Systems or related major
Accreditation:
Southwest Power Pool, is about more than power. We’re about the power of relationships. We work together with our members and other stakeholders to ensure electricity is delivered reliably and affordably to the millions of people living in our multi-state service territory. SPP is a regional transmission organization (RTO): a nonprofit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices on behalf of its members.
SPP was founded in 1941 when 11 regional power companies pooled their resources to keep Arkansas’ Jones Mill powered around the clock in support of critical, national defense needs. Eight decades later, SPP still reflects our early principles of collaboration in the interest of providing a critical service for the good of our region. Our vision is to lead our industry to a brighter future, delivering the best energy value.
Available Internship Positions at SPP
Market Monitoring– This market monitoring intern is expected to be competent with the administrative and communication tools for word processing, spread sheet development, time keeping, etc. The intern is expected to develop fundamental understanding of electricity markets and gain knowledge of software (SAS, SQL, Tableau) associated with area of responsibility. As directed by a lead market monitor or manager, the intern should be prepared to enthusiastically complete specific assignments including market power studies, behavior of specific power plants, potential market rule changes, and financial analysis of market performance on a daily, monthly, and quarterly basis.
Preferred Major/Minor: Economics, Math, Computer Science or Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial or Computer)
Accreditation: Required for engineering majors (ABET)
Operations Support– This Engineer Intern is expected to be competent with the administrative and communication tools for word processing, spread sheet development, time keeping, etc. The incumbent is expected to develop fundamental understanding of transmission system concept and gain knowledge of software associated with area of responsibility. As directed by the lead engineer or supervisor, the Engineer Intern should be prepared to enthusiastically complete specific assignments directed by ad hoc stakeholder/committees, transmission planning services, tariff studies or network modeling and engineering data coordination efforts.
Preferred Major/Minor: Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial or Computer) , Math, or Data Analytics
Accreditation: Required for engineering majors (ABET)
System Planning– This Engineer Intern is expected to be competent with the administrative and communication tools for word processing, spread sheet development, time keeping, etc. The incumbent is expected to develop fundamental understanding of transmission system concept and gain knowledge of software associated with area of responsibility. As directed by the lead engineer or supervisor, the Engineer Intern should be prepared to enthusiastically complete specific assignments directed by ad hoc stakeholder/committees, transmission planning services, tariff studies or network modeling and engineering data coordination efforts.
Preferred Major/Minor: Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial or Computer) or Data Science
Accreditation: Required for engineering majors (ABET)
Seams & Tariff Services– The IT Intern is expected to be competent with the administrative and communication tools for word processing, spread sheet development, time keeping, etc. The incumbent is expected to develop fundamental understanding of SPP’s IT systems concepts and gain knowledge of software associated with area of responsibility. As directed by the IT lead or supervisor, the IT Intern should be prepared to enthusiastically complete specific assignments directed by ad hoc stakeholder/committees, settlements systems, data services, reliability systems, markets services, and IT support efforts.
Preferred Major/Minor: Engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial or Computer) or Data Science
Accreditation: Required for engineering majors (ABET)
Settlement Intern– The Settlement Intern is responsible for support of market and/or transmission settlements, or other entry-level tasks as needed. The Settlement Intern provides support for the settlement staff, Supervisor of Settlements, Manager of Settlements, and Director of Settlements as necessary.
Preferred Major/Minor:
Accreditation: Required for engineering majors (ABET)

Central Arkansas Water is a company whose mission is: to enhance the quality of life for Central Arkansas by delivering high-quality water and dependable service that exceed customer expectations; protecting and ensuring a long-term water supply for future generations; and serving as responsible stewards of public health, utility resources, and the environment.
Available Internship Positions at Central Arkansas Water
Engineering – the intern will have a utility orientation and become familiar with the work of the engineering department and processes by visiting construction sites with one or more of our engineers or engineering technicians. CAW is looking for an individual who is an engineering major (civil, mechanical and agricultural disciplines are preferred.) The individual should be CAD literate (AutoCAD preferred) and computer software literate (Microsoft Office preferred.) The intern should be capable of working in an office setting, working in a printing room (handling paper, small and large documents) and working in the field performing construction inspection (traversing rough ground, heat and cold, wet and dry weather) Working hours are typically M-F 8-4:30.
Preferred Major/Minor: Engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Agricultural)
Accreditation: Not Required
GIS/IT – The ideal candidate for GIS/IT intern can expect exposure to a wide range of Information Technology and Geographic Information System experiences. IT duties and responsibilities include technical troubleshooting, database management, cyber security, programming, analytics, network communication, and security, maintaining hardware, software, and other systems. GIS duties might include creating paper maps, digital mapping applications, editing and analyzing existing GIS datasets (shapefiles, geodatabases, & relational databases), and working with and/or collecting GNSS data. Candidates should be pursuing a degree in data science, business analytics, computer science, information systems, geography, GIS, environmental science, or any other related field.
Preferred Major/Minor: Data Science, Business Analytics, Computer Science, Information Systems, Geography, Environmental Science
Accreditation: Not Required
Sustainability and Watershed – The CAW Sustainability Intern will assist with Greenhouse Gas Emission reporting, Climate Action Plan, and Solar projects. A background in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering or similar field of study is required along with data analysis proficiency in Excel spreadsheets.
Preferred Major/Minor: Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering
Accreditation: Not Required
Water Production –The intern will have exposure to: the history of water introduction, Public Health as it relates to drinking water and introduction to surface water, and visit Lake Maumelle pump station, be exposed to the water treatment process, chemicals used, water quality indicators and operational guidelines, forecasting demand and operators’ lab testing. The intern will assist Facility Operators with treatment, perform lab analyses and other treatment operational tasks with an emphasis on understanding process fundamentals, with pilot plant Introduction and analytical laboratory, instrumentation, analytical methods, LIMS, etc. Introduction to system operation to provide an understanding of pressure, flow, volume (relate to demand) and balancing these while maintaining water quality through adequate tank cycling. Basic overview of regulations, accompany field lab techs for routine regulatory sampling. Students should be pursuing a scientific or engineering major.
Preferred Major/Minor: Environmental or Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Biology, Microbiology, Environmental Health
Accreditation: Not Required

Founded in 1987, CDI Contractors is a full-service general contractor and construction management company. CDI was originally founded with the sole purpose to construct retail facilities for the upscale department store retailer, Dillard’s Inc. We quickly rose in the construction industry, not only in retail, but also education, healthcare, government/municipal, industrial/manufacturing, hotels, museums, sports venues, offices, and many other market sectors with a total volume of over $7.2 billion so far. CDI has offices in Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas and is licensed and/or available to perform any construction in 45 states across the country.
Available Internship Positions at CDI Contractors
2 Available Internship Positions that will do a combination of:
Assistant Project Engineer Responsibilities:
Assist Project Engineer with the follow:
- Subcontractor Management (as it relates to submittal and material procurement)
- Submittal review and approvals
- RFI development
- Maintain Project Record Documents
- Process Pay applications
- Assist with Change Order pricing
- Support of safety plan
Assistant Field Engineer Responsibilities:
Assist Field Engineer with the following:
- Subcontractor Management (as if relates to installation)
- Submittal review skills
- RFI development
- Layout / surveying
- Daily reports
- Quality control
- Support of safety plan
Assistant Estimator Responsibilities:
Assist Estimator with the following:
- Subcontractor solicitation
- Project document review skills
- Takeoff
- Bid pricing management

L’oreal is the world’s largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, skin care, sun protection, make-up, perfume, and hair care. Locally, their plant is located in North Little Rock. For all departments in which they are offering internships, they recommend engineering or supply chain majors.
Available Internship Position at L’oreal
L’Oréal Operations The L’Oréal USA Summer Internship Program is a paid, 11 week experience where you will be fully integrated into the day-to-day activities of a team while also leading your own, individual strategic project to discover what it is truly like to develop a career at the #1 Beauty Tech company in the world. We are committed to giving our interns the space to explore, to have full time employee responsibilities, present their own insights to senior management, and to become future leaders. At the end of the summer you will present your project to senior leadership for the opportunity to be considered for a full-time return offer into a Management Trainee program or a full-time role.
Preferred Major/Minor: Chemical, Electrical, Industrial or Mechanical Engineering
Accreditation: Required
Garver is an employee-owned multidisciplined engineering, planning, and environmental services firm with more than 1,000 employees across the United States. Offering a wide range of services focused on aviation, construction, facilities, federal, survey, transportation, water, and wastewater, Garver sits in the top 125 of the Engineering News-Record’s prestigious Top 500 Design Firms list and is consistently recognized as a best firm to work for.
Available Internship Positions at Garver
Communication Intern– Garver’s in-house Communications Team is looking for a Communications Intern to work in the downtown Little Rock office to assist in the writing, development, and editing of content for internal and external audiences. Other duties include assisting with special projects, as needed.
Preferred Major/Minor: Communications, Journalism, Writing, Marketing, or a similar major
Accreditation: Required
Aviation Civil Engineering Intern– Work alongside and be mentored by experienced aviation design professionals and industry leaders. Receive training from senior engineers in various elements of airfield pavement design, pavement maintenance, airport lighting, and construction oversight for general aviation and commercial service airports. Visit Garver’s Aviation project sites, such as airport hangars, taxiways, and runways. Gain experience in the competitive consulting engineering industry by assisting with project administration, submitting proposals, and grant applications.
Preferred Major/Minor: Civil Engineering (rising senior)
Accreditation: Required

Windstream Holdings, Inc., is a leading provider of advanced network communications and technology solutions for consumers, small businesses, enterprise organizations and carrier partners across the U.S. Windstream offers bundled services, including broadband, security solutions, voice and digital TV to consumers. The company also provides data, cloud solutions, unified communications and managed services to business and enterprise clients. The company supplies core transport solutions on a local and long-haul fiber-optic network spanning approximately 150,000 miles.
Available Internship Positions at Windstream
Cybersecurity and Programming– As a Cybersecurity/Programming Intern with Windstream, you will work with business stakeholders who own and support IT infrastructure, applications, process, and operations. You will receive practical corporate business experience while interacting with professionals at all levels of the company and gain an outlook on future career opportunities. This internship will provide you the experience of working in a collaborative team environment as well as providing you with job responsibilities that mirror those given to first-year professionals.
Preferred Major/Minor: Information Technology and Information Systems, Computer Science, Systems & Network Administration, Engineering (Software and Computer), Cybersecurity, Data analytics, Computer Networking
Accreditation:
Kinetic Marketing Intern – The Kinetic Marketing Intern will be part of the Kinetic Marketing Strategy team. They will help ensure that we are moving the Kinetic by Windstream and Kinetic Business brands forward in the communities we serve. They will have the opportunity to learn a wide array of both hard technical skills and soft people skills. While assisting with a wide range of projects, they will gain experience and training in many aspects of Internal Communications, CMS (content management system), video producing and editing, video podcast production, graphic design, researching and writing, etc.
Preferred Major/Minor:
Accreditation:
Duties and Responsibilities
- Partner with marketing strategy team to execute tasks related to developing our overall marketing messaging
- Learning about very technical product offerings and presenting to internal and external audiences in a way that they can understand
- Understand the marketing process from end-to-end
- Assist with video producing
- Writing/scripting, and assisting on video shoots
- Video podcast production. Includes:
- Day of recording/streaming
- Guest research and recruitment
- Prepping show outline
- Etc.
- Internal Communications Work
- Write first drafts of internal communications from information given from stakeholders
- Create/source supporting graphics, pis, and videos
- Learn intranet CMS to post communications, update site/pages, etc.
- Understand and update editorial calendar
- Reaching out to various Kinetic organizations to encourage internal updates on current projects, etc.
Kinetic Pricing Intern– The Kinetic Pricing Intern will be part of the Kinetic Pricing team and help ensure that we deliver rate plans into the marketplace that balance profitability with sales volumes while
simplifying our product offering. The right candidate will have the opportunity to experience both sides of our internal decision process including data analytics blended with marketing strategy. While assisting on a wide range of projects, the right candidate will gain experience and training in both Consumer and Business marketing pricing strategies across each of our sales channels.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Partner with managers responsible for price plan development to support our consumer and business segments in business case development and executive approval presentations
- Shadow managers responsible for the go-to-market execution of approved strategic initiative providing an opportunity to take a concept from a business case to in market execution to post launch review of results
- Develop a presentation outlying observations from the internship program and develop recommendations regarding simplification of our product pricing strategy
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Knowledge of quantitative data analysis
- Knowledge of financial modeling and comparative analysis
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and workflow
- Proficient in Excel and accounting systems
- Strong written, verbal, and organizational skills
Finance and Procurement Intern– As a Finance/Procurement Intern with Windstream, you will work with business stakeholders as well as the sourcing team, the finance team, and suppliers among others to improve existing business processes to optimize Windstream’s performance. You will receive practical corporate business experience while interacting with professionals at all levels of the company and gain an outlook on future career opportunities. This internship will provide you the experience of working in a collaborative team environment as well as providing you with job responsibilities that mirror those given to first-year professionals.
Preferred Major/Minor: Finance and Accounting
Accreditation: Preferred
Duties and Responsibilities
- Evaluate, analyze, and enhance operations processes to optimize process efficiency, reduce processing time, and mitigate risks.
- Access and manipulate large amounts of data into meaningful spend analyses on an as needed basis
- Develop ad-hoc spend analysis and accurately assess material cost drivers
- Troubleshoot and solve for the causes of inconsistencies in contract related metadata
- Other projects as assigned.
Interns will work with the Arvest Central Arkansas team covering Central, Northeast, and Southwest Arkansas. These interns will shadow and partner with all groups within the local community bank to include retail bank operations, small business and commercial lending,
The Arvest intern experience will include the opportunity for hands-on assignments in your field of study, a group project you’ll complete with other interns focusing on a real-time Arvest business issue, professional and leadership development activities, as well as social and community events.
Business Development Intern:
Preferred Major/Minor:
Accreditation:
Duties and Responsibilities
- Work on projects within discipline and communicate findings to subject matter experts through project status reports, presentations, and documentation.
- Use data and judgement to analyze improvement opportunities and the potential impact on business processes.
- Meet with subject matter experts to understand industry environment.
Skills
- Hands on experience in chosen field.
- Gain an understanding of the Financial Industry.
- Collaborate with a variety of associates from across the company.
- Support implementation of new systems, policies and procedures.
Retail/Backoffice Support Intern:
Preferred Major/Minor:
Accreditation:
Duties and Responsibilities
- Work on projects within discipline and communicate findings to subject matter experts through project status reports, presentations, and documentation.
- Use data and judgement to analyze improvement opportunities and the potential impact on business processes.
- Meet with subject matter experts to understand industry environment.
Skills
- Hands on experience in chosen field.
- Gain an understanding of the Financial Industry.
- Collaborate with a variety of associates from across the company.
- Support implementation of new systems, policies and procedures.
If you have additional questions, please contact Maddie Spickard at mspickard@womensfoundationarkansas.org or Kris Smith at ksmith@womensfoundationarkansas.org.
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