Before graduating from Gettysburg, you are strongly encouraged to explore your career options and complete extra job-related training during the summer months, whether through faculty-led research experiences or off-campus internships. Often, an internship at a particular organization can lead to a future job offer. Fortunately, there are a variety of resources available to help you land—and fund—the perfect internship.
The Center for Career Engagement (CCE) can help you hone your resume and interview skills to land a summer internship in the career of your choice. You should also consider the summer programs offered by the Center for Public Service and the Washington Summer Fellow program at the Eisenhower Institute. Past students have completed summer internships or externships in data analytics, marketing, human resources, and nonprofit advocacy. Funding is available to help defray the costs associated with low-paying or unpaid internships. The Seibert Nonprofit Fellowship is available for students pursuing work in the nonprofit sector, while the Bryant Fund supports the cost of internship-related housing and commuting for first-generation college students. Future employers expect students to have completed one or more internships or fellowships during their time in college, so be sure you reach out to the CCE early in your sociology career.
The Center for Career Engagement provides instructions for registering your internship; forms may differ for domestic and international students. Both paid and unpaid internships can be completed for college credit.
The Department of Sociology has specific expectations for students hoping to receive credit (SOC 473) for an internship, with a focus on applying a sociological perspective.
Purpose
Internships are designed to provide students with the opportunity to participate meaningfully in an off-campus setting related to their academic interests. While as an intern the student may complete tasks of benefit to the agency with which they are placed, the primary goal of the intern experience is for student to apply the sociological perspective and its attendant concepts, understandings, and theories, to their experience.
Procedure
Students should contact the Center for Career Engagement about possible internships. After identifying and registering a potential internship, students should consult with departmental faculty in order to request faculty sponsorship. It is up to the individual faculty member to decide whether to accept the role of sponsoring and evaluating the student’s internship project. Faculty will ordinarily not sponsor more than two such projects at a time. Students should make arrangements for faculty sponsorship prior to April 15th. The Sociology Department cannot ensure sponsorship for requests made after this date.
Evaluation and Credit
All internships will be designated SOC 473, graded S/U, and will not count toward the requirements in the Sociology major or minor. This grade will be based on the quality of the required assignments detailed below.
Required Assignments
In addition to completing the internship requirements as established by the Center for Career Engagement, a student is required to complete two assignments in order to receive credit for their internship:
One: a daily log/journal detailing a student’s experiences. This journal will be comprised of daily entries that include a description of the activities that were completed, the time spent on each activity, and connections that the student makes between their experience that day and sociological ideas/concepts that they have learned.
Two: a term paper analyzing some aspect of a student’s internship experience from a sociological perspective. This paper should be 10-15 pages in length. Papers must also demonstrate intimate familiarity with, and make explicit reference to, around 10 scholarly sources in sociology and/or a related discipline. All works referenced in a student’s paper must be included in a bibliography and bibliographies should follow the citation style of the American Sociological Association.
Final deadlines will be determined by the faculty member and student. In general, students who complete their internships in the Spring semester or during the Summer are required to turn in the required assignments by October 1st of the following Fall Semester. Students who complete their internships during the Fall semester are required to turn in the required assignments by March 1st of the following Spring semester.
(last revised: 4/30/2015)