The Education Department believes that participation in educational activities outside the classroom can enhance student understanding of the complexities of education and the challenges of quality educational experiences to people in a variety of settings. As such, we encourage students to consider participating in internships for academic credit. The guidelines below outline requirements that must be met for students to earn internship credit. Students may also wish to participate in internships that do not lead to academic credit, which may be supervised by a member of the Department faculty but need not be. We also encourage students pursuing a minor in Educational Studies to consider completing an Education Project, which may or may not be internship-related, and may or may not be counted for academic credit. The question of whether to pursue academic credit for internship activities is one that should be discussed with a member of the Education Department’s faculty.
Time Commitment & Sponsorship
Perhaps the most important variables to consider when planning an internship experience are how much time to commit to it and how and by whom it will be sponsored.
Time Commitment.Students are expected to complete a minimum of 160 contact hours in supervised internship-related activities in order to receive a full unit of academic credit. These hours should be carefully counted and documented. Though it is not necessary to complete a regular “timesheet” or other such form, students should be aware that they will be asked to provide evidence that this requirement has been met at the conclusion of the internship; failure to provide such evidence may result on credit not being awarded. Most students will probably meet this requirement by establishing clear goals for the internship before it begins and providing a letter or other written documentation from a supervisor indicating that the requirement has been fulfilled.
Sponsorship. All internships completed for credit must be sponsored by a faculty member in the Education Department and by someone able to confirm participation in the internship experience itself.
Evidence of Engagement
Other indispensable parts of any internship are a carefully articulated plan and, upon completion, evidence that the plan has been fulfilled.
Proposal. Each internship experience should begin with a carefully written proposal that includes the following information:
- What is the purpose of the internship experience? What do you hope to gain from it? You are encouraged to write a set of goals for the internship (these may be framed as learning goals) to help ensure that the internship meets your
- Who will supervise the experience? Be sure to name both a faculty sponsor and a field Where will the internship take place? Identify site.
- Do you want to receive a letter grade for your internship, or do you prefer to take it S/U?
- Do you want to receive credit for the internship toward the minor in Educational Studies? If so, you will have to receive the approval of the chair of the Education Department. Plan to include the chair in your discussions if this is the
- How will you demonstrate that you have accomplished your goals?
- What are the starting and ending dates for the internship? When do you plan to provide evidence to your faculty sponsor showing what you learned (i.e.: what’s the due date for your project)?
The form of this proposal matters less than the content, but your plan for the internship must be signed by you and by both of your sponsors. For advice on putting together an acceptable proposal discuss your plans with your faculty sponsor.
Evidence. One of the keys to earning internship credit is showing what you learned. To do so you’ll complete an ongoing project and a final project. The ongoing project should consist of field notes or other observations collected over the course of the internship experience. These notes should be shared with your faculty sponsor at the conclusion of the internship. If there is sensitive information in the notes, such information should be removed before sharing the notes with anyone.
The final project may take any form agreed upon by the student and his or her sponsors. Here are a few ideas:
- Write a long reflective paper (10-15 pages) examining how the internship experience changed your perceptions of teaching, education, learning, your content area, or whatever else you chose to focus on in your proposal. You should make explicit connections between your experiences in the internship and educational theories and/or research that you have studied. These theories and research studies may be drawn from other courses you have taken, or you may choose to incorporate a substantial reading list into your internship
- Write a long paper (10-15) that presents the results of original research you performed as part of your internship experience or that uses existing research to contextualize your
- Complete an approved project that connects educational research and theories to your internship experience. Such presentations may take any creative form. You may, for example, plan to present your work at Celebration or in another scholarly venue (such as a regional or national conference), or you may create a web-based representation of what you learned. You may do work for a local organization that can demonstrate what you learned (for example, build or update a website, help draft new guidelines for a tutoring program, help create curricular materials for a local school or music program, etc.). You should, of course, discuss your plans with your
Internship Contract: needs to be signed before the student asks for approval from the faculty sponsor.
- Go to student center
- Career Engagement
- Click Internship
- Register for the course 470 or 471 (if taken during summer for credit, will have to pay.)
Internship Abroad:
- Contact Registrar or Center for Global Education before you go abroad
- Cannot count abroad internship experience twice.