Already, nearly 100 of the Fairfield's faculty and staff and more than 1,100 of the university's alumni live in Bridgeport, and the Webster Bank Arena in the city is ...]]>

Fairfield University and the nearby city of Bridgeport, Conn., announced a new internship program that promises to tie the Jesuit university and gritty industrial city closer together.

Already, nearly 100 of the Fairfield's faculty and staff and more than 1,100 of the university's alumni live in Bridgeport, and the Webster Bank Arena in the city is home court for Fairfield Stags basketball. The internship program will place students in city departments ranging from the Office of the Mayor to the city's Animal Shelter. And Fairfield President Jeffrey P. von Arx noted that a master’s program in public administration that the university will introduce in the fall will offer even more opportunities to engage with the city.

In September 2012, National Public Radio’s WNPR-Connecticut Public Radio and The Connecticut Mirror opened a news bureau on the Fairfield University campus, offering opportunities for Fairfield students to be interns in a working newsroom.