Internship

Requirement
Upper division students in the program leading to a B.A. in Environmental Studies participate in internships after completing a minimum of 30 semester hours of course work related to a specialized environmental field of study. Internships should provide opportunities for students to gain practical experience in which they apply and broaden knowledge and skills related to their career interests. Employers, at the same time, should derive benefit from the assistance of interns. Students registering for internship credit must obtain approvals in advance from the employer, the faculty advisor and the department chair.

Internships are typically 6 credit hours and involve a minimum of 320 hours of work, which is accounted for with a time-log of activities and a daily/weekly journal. Since internships often are project-specific, students are expected to complete an assigned project in the event that related work goes beyond the 320 work hours. The work schedule encouraged is at least 20 hours per week.

Purpose
The internship is intended to give the student experience in a working environment at a level of involvement which may be higher than what one would expect from an entry-level position. It will give the student an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills aquired in their college program. Also, these are excellent opportunities for employers to test potential employees; the experience often ends with a job offer, or a strong letter of recommendation.

Preparation
Students are responsible for finding their own internship, although this often involves consulting with faculty and looking over the internship database. When a potential placement is identified, the student, faculty member, and employer design a work plan that ensures that the student will be involved in challenging and educational projects and activities. The employer must specify what work will be done. This three-way agreement should be designed and approved prior to the internship, and no later than the first week of the internship term. The plan may be amended with consent of the student, employer, and the faculty advisor. Significant amendments should be submitted in writing and approved by the consenting parties.

Reporting
Because this is a formal and important part of the Environmental Studies degree, there are specific requirements regarding record keeping.

The first of these is the Internship Plan and Record Forms, which are completed in advance and are found and explained at the bottom of this page.

During the internship, students must communicate with their faculty advisor weekly or every other week. This is typically done in the form of journal entries and in most cases may be sent by email. It is the advisor's responsibility to monitor the student's progress carefully and intervene when necessary. Of course the employer also may communicate directly to the advisor, but is not required to do so. The advisor is expected to maintain regular contact with the employer.

A daily or weekly detailed log of activities and work time is required; when possible, samples of work completed may be attached to this document. This will become public record and available to students in the department library, along with a summary assessment of the experience (about one page).

The student also must write a reflective essay, which is submitted to the advisor. The document not only summarizes the work done, but places it in the context of the degree program and the student's own personal and professional goals. This document is later made available to faculty in the department, because they are in a position of advising potential interns in the future. If the student chooses, this essay also becomes part of the public record, along with the summary-abstract and log of activities.

At the end of the internship, the employer writes a letter to the faculty advisor confirming and evaluating the student's performance, and the advisor writes a similar letter to the student, along with the assignment of a letter grade.

Payment
Payment for work done varies, and is arranged between the student and employer. Sometimes the unpaid internship provides more in the way of experience. In other words, compensation may be in the form of attending higher-level meetings, participating in many projects, training sessions, and so on. The faculty advisor is often in a position to negotiate these sorts of arrangements.

Internship forms
Several forms will be useful in the course of preparing an internship. Use this work plan to design the internship. It requires all three signatures and serves as a mutual agreement which can be useful if anyone's expectations are not met.

Remember that the employer is generally primarily interested in getting work done and (in some cases) assessing a potential permanent employee. The faculty advisor is concerned primarily with applied student learning. And the student often has a variety of goals -- learning content, gaining work experience, developing a resume, earning money, assessing a potential employer, completing program requirements, etc. This plan helps ensure that as many of these goals as possible will be met.

The Internship Record Form will be a permanent record of the employer, advisor, and contact information. This should be filled out by the student and given to the G&ES department chair, along with the work plan, at the time of enrollment.

Here is the Internship Record Form.

In addition to these two documents you will need the Independent Study form, which is available from your advisor.