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Hey!
Welcome to F1 Internships! A space primarily dedicated to sharing internship and job opportunities that sponsor international students in the U.S! On this site, you will find pages dedicated to internships in different undergrad disciplines, grad students opportunities and typical full-time employment sponsors.
With the goal of empowering my fellow international students, this site also includes helpful resources like other great platforms, videos and application advice. You will also find a page that broadly breaks down the legalities of working under an F1 visa with links to official government websites for more concrete and updated information. Even more, the group feature is a great way to connect with other students and pour into each other even more!
This website was designed to ignite hope amongst the possible frustration of navigating international life in the U.S. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but a possibly helpful tool!
My Story
My name is Kutemwa Masafwa and I am the founder of F-1 Internships! I was born and raised in Chingola, Zambia and came to the U.S in 2021 on a full academic scholarship to Xavier University of Louisiana. I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in May 2025 and will be pursuing my chemistry PhD at Yale University. It was during my first summer at Xavier that I discovered my passion for research through a research assistant position that carried on until I graduated at Xavier. It was an awesome opportunity and I am forever grateful for the spark it lit, but staying in school my first summer was not the plan at all!
I came to the land of opportunity for just that, but I did not think finding those that I qualify for would be such a struggle! Thanks to God, I was able to take part in three well-rounded internships in addition to the research assistantship! I spent my second summer at the University of Notre Dame and my third at the University of California, Davis. I also got to have a post-baccalaureate internship at the National Energy Technology Lab (NETL). I have seen the great benefits of having experience outside of class in addition to the hard skills and the confidence built. I gained impactful mentorship, discovered new passions and grew personally, mentally and financially! To me, applying for internships is a non-negotiable yearly task! There is too much to gain and too little to lose!
After struggling my freshman year, I began to gather resources and opportunities for future me. Then the idea hit: I could compile them all into a website! The obvious hinderance was my lack of programming, but soon, I discovered Wix! It made it so easy to build the site as long as I stayed committed to learning along the way. I truly had fun combining my love for graphic design, organization and creating my own impact. I made it my sophomore summer project, and by the time school was resuming, I launched the site and shared it on Linkedin!
Honestly, when I was working on it, I thought it would only impact my little circle of international students at Xavier. Lo and behold! I got thousands of responses from other international students facing the same issues! F-1 Internships now has thousands of users and I am so glad you are here too! This motivated me to seek more ways to reach students in my own way. I ended up starting an International Student Association at Xavier and serving on the International Committee of the National Society of Black Engineers. These brought many opportunities to speak to my fellow students, and it means so much to be able to share what I keep learning on my journey!
My message to you? Someone needs what you have! Don't hold it in!
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.