2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 57 - Youth Affairs (§§ 1601 — 1623) › Subchapter II - Programs administered by the Office (§§ 1621 — 1623) › § 1622 - Internship and research program

(a) The Internship and Research Program for Master’s and Doctoral Degree Students is hereby created to be directed and administered by the Youth Affairs Office.
(b) The Director of the Youth Affairs Office shall establish and propitiate the coordination and the mechanisms needed for the availability of positions to be filled by the interns of the Program.
(c) Any student from any public or private university institution duly accredited in Puerto Rico shall be eligible to be nominated as intern of the Program. The interns shall be pursuing full-time studies directed to obtaining a master’s or doctoral degree, as provided in the regulations for these purposes. Participation in an internship is a valuable opportunity in the course of an education; therefore, those candidates with a true commitment to the profession for which they are studying should be the selected ones.
(d) The criteria for the selection of program interns shall comply with the regulations to be promulgated by the Director to such effect, taking into consideration, among other criteria said officer deems pertinent and reasonable, academic experience, grades, and study courses, in addition to a classification system of said interns and their respective salaries.
(e) The Program interns shall work in different dependencies, as the Director shall determine in coordination with the different administrators or directors of the public instrumentalities of the Government of Puerto Rico.
(f) The Director shall take the necessary measures with the participating public and private institutions so that the participation of the interns during the period provided through regulations may be validated as university credits. The Director shall likewise take all steps necessary for an effective coordination with other government dependencies to achieve the purposes of this section or for the establishment of new programs to promote the provisions contained herein.
(g) The Director is hereby instructed to promulgate, administer, execute or amend, as the case may be, regulations, determinations or other provisions related to compliance with this section.
(h) The Director is hereby empowered to accept any economic items that are transferred, contributed or ceded to the Youth Affairs Office by any agency, public corporation or instrumentality of the Government of Puerto Rico, the federal government or the municipal governments for compliance with the provisions of this section. To such effect, the regulations to be approved by the Director for compliance of this section shall include the procedure for compliance with the provisions of this section.
(i) The Director may not use the additional resources that for compliance of this section have been appropriated to the Office in substitution of the budget appropriations from the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico. The funds that at the time of the approval of this act the Director uses for the internships shall be identified as such in the budget and may only be used for the Program herein created.
The Executive Director of the Office of Youth Affairs, Office of the Governor, may accept financial aid including donations, be it in cash or technical services, from private persons or entities, nonprofit institutions, from the Government of the United States of America, the Government of Puerto Rico, or from any instrumentality, agency or political subdivision of said governments.
(j) Those students who qualify to participate in Legislative Internships or in those programs that by law or regulations are created by the Legislature are excluded from compliance with this section.
History —Dec. 16, 2005, No. 157, §§ 2—11.