A federal hiring freeze enacted by President Donald Trump has revoked internship offers for many students, leaving them scrambling to secure alternative opportunities before summer.
Hunter Person, a junior studying political science pre-law and international studies, secured an internship with the U.S. State Department after extensive preparation, including drafting a multi-page federal resume, interviewing and obtaining security clearance. However, the opportunity was unexpectedly revoked, leaving his efforts wasted.
Person is not the only one to experience this. Following the enactment of a 90-day federal hiring freeze, many students have had their summer 2025 federal internships revoked.
The federal hiring freeze originated from an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 20.
The order specifies that no civilian employees can be hired to any agency within the executive branch for 90 days after the order was signed.
As a result, bureaucratic agencies that typically hire interns are being forced to take away summer 2025 internship positions previously available.
Along with the executive order, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum titled Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze Guidance that outlines how federal agencies must follow the hiring freeze order and what agencies are exempt.
Exemptions include the U.S. Postal Service, military personnel, immigration enforcement, national security, public safety and senior executive members requiring Presidential appointment or Senate confirmation.
The document also goes into detail about the goal of the hiring freeze.
The memorandum states that within 90 days of its issuance, the directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, along with the administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service, must submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
For Meghan Martin, a junior studying environmental science and sustainability, the hiring freeze also meant losing a federal internship at the National Arboretum.
After a successful interview, where Martin thought she was guaranteed a job, she received an email saying the arboretum could no longer proceed with the hiring process.
“Unfortunately, there is bad news to share,” the email read. “We are not able to hire interns at all this season … While interns are paid through a private funding source, each new person is required to go through a federal background check … This background check process has been put on hold.”
Although Martin was prepared with another internship ready, she reported being worried about finding jobs in the environmental science field in the future because of recent job and research cuts.
However, Person was not as prepared for the hiring freeze.
“Now I’m just kind of scrambling to figure something out for the summer,” Person said. “I’ve talked to a lot of professors, and I have another one I’m talking with today. It’s just kind of what I’m doing at the moment, kind of stressed out a little bit.”
Person also said he hoped to receive a job offer from this internship.
“I had kind of hoped it would set me up for the next summer as well, for my senior year, because a lot of people who have these types of internships get offered a job in the future, assuming you did well and all of that,” Person said. “I’m obviously disappointed, as a lot of people are, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Due to the rigorous hiring process, Person said he feels discouraged from applying for a federal internship or job in the future.
“Right now, I’m kind of looking for different non-governmental organizations (to work for),” Person said. “But even then, even though they’re non-governmental, a lot of them still receive their funding from the U.S. in one way or another, so either they’re closing positions and so on and so forth.”
Person also described his outlook on getting an internship now.
“It’s kind of out of my hands,” Person said. “Of course I can look for whatever, but not any federal positions right now, I don’t suppose.”
