Community Internship Program

Feeding the homeless, repairing homes and tutoring inmates are not the activities you would typically find in a training course for senior level managers - except at UPS.

Founded in 1968, the Community Internship Program (CIP) is an intense management training course designed to immerse senior level executives in the community, exposing them to a variety of social and economic challenges facing today's workforce. While in the program, managers leave their jobs and families to spend a month living and working in one of four CIP sites run by local non-profit agencies. Internship sites are located in New York City, Chattanooga, Tenn., McAllen, Texas and San Francisco, CA.

The program helps managers enhance their problem-solving skills and develop a greater sensitivity towards their employees. Managers become heavily involved in the work of the non-profit agencies and experience social problems - poverty, homelessness, illiteracy, drug dependency and alcoholism - firsthand. Typical activities include serving meals to the homeless, helping rid an inner city community of drug paraphernalia, building houses for immigrants and helping teachers manage classrooms of children.

Managers become exposed to situations they would rarely encounter in corporate America or learn about in the classroom - issues their employees might experience in their day-to-day lives. Managers continue to receive their salary while on assignment.

What is the Experience Like for a Senior Executive to Leave Behind the Comforts of Home and Job Status?

CIP aids UPS in developing and strengthening its managers, while helping to improve the communities where its employees live and work. After completing four weeks of "hands-on" community service and learning projects, UPS managers leave with a sense of accomplishment, community involvement and with a greater sensitivity to those less fortunate. John Puff, an intern from the 1998 program, put the experience in his own words: The internship "made me a better person and a better manager. I've never been exposed to anything like it in my life."

McAllen, TX
Just miles from the Mexico border, McAllen, TX has hosted the UPS Community Internship Program (CIP) since 1984.

Chattanooga, TN
Since 1977, the UPS Community Internship Program (CIP) has been helping the communities near Chattanooga, TN.

New York City
The Henry Street Settlement, located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has been home to the UPS Community Internship Program (CIP) since 1968.

San Francisco
The UPS Community Internship Program (CIP) expanded to San Francisco's Chinatown beginning in 2004.

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