Thomas College

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Learn About Internships

Why Do an Internship?

Where do I start? What do I need to do, and when?

As early as your sophomore year, start making plans for your internship. Talk with your advisor and Professional and Career Development about the requirements of the program. Plan your electives to make sure you can fit an internship into your program during your junior or senior year.

For more detailed information about the Thomas Internship Program:

Process of Securing an Internship

As early as sophomore year:

  • Meet with advisor and Professional and Career Development to make plans for an internship
  • Plan for how many credits and plan electives so internship will fit into program
  • Start to explore what functional areas are of interest and what organizations to target
  • Seek out people who have done internships or currently doing internships – attend the Internship Expo at the end of each semester, or job shadow an intern
  • Prepare a preliminary draft of learning objectives. Think about five major things you’d like to gain from an internship experience

Early junior year:

  • Complete any of the necessary steps outlined above
  • Work with advisor, career services and on your own to seek internship opportunities
  • Make sure you meet all the eligibility requirements and follow the “Student Internship Guidelines and Requirements“

Internship application:

  • As you apply for internships, keep your advisor and Professional and Career Development informed. Get preliminary approval from them to ensure you’re on the right track.
  • Internship needs to be a new learning experience that ties in with your major; no credit for current jobs.
  • Get all the necessary information from the employer (job description, duration, number of hours per week)

Upon acceptance:

  • Finalize the learning objectives in consultation with the internship site mentor (supervisor) and academic advisor and complete the learning contract, attaching the job description if available.
  • The learning objectives need to be clearly consistent with the job description and your major and will be used in evaluating your internship performance.
  • Get approval and signatures from your advisor; division chair; internship site mentor
    (your supervisor who will oversee your work).
  • Submit the completed “Learning Contract” to the Professional and Career Development department
  • Work with your advisor to get registered for internship course and make sure you understand the academic requirements for grading, which will be completed by division chair.

Student Internship Guidelines and Requirements

Students seeking an internship need to ensure they meet the following requirements before committing to an employer:

  • At least junior class status (minimum of 60 credits completed) or two-year senior class status (minimum of 30 credits completed)
  • Good academic standing. Students must have a 2.5 GPA at the time they begin the internship, and 3.0 recommended for 12-credit internship
  • Availability of professional or general electives (not liberal arts electives) that can be replaced by the internship (3-, 6-, 9-, or 12-credit internship)
  • Total semester credits not to exceed 18 credit hours, unless student is willing to pay additional tuition for extra credits

The following guidelines are in place for an internship to qualify for college credit:

  • The internship needs to be a working experience within the student’s major.
  • The job duties must provide the student with a rigorous, hands-on working experience that enables the student to apply academic learnings in a real, live work situation.
  • The internship needs to be a new learning experience. College credit cannot be granted for an existing job.
  • The internship must be supervised by a site mentor who is experienced and qualified to provide feedback and direction in that field of work.

The following are the internship course requirements:

  • Complete 3 workshops chosen from an array of in person or remote workshop opportunities offered by the Professional and Career Development department and participate in a promotional event to inform other students about your experience and internship opportunities at your internship site.
  • Completion of internship with the minimum of 150 hours for a 3-credit internship, 300 hours for a 6-credit internship, 450 hours for a 9-credit internship and 600 hours for a 12-credit internship
  • Completion of weekly, two-page double-spaced, typed e-journal including three categories:
    • – Tasks/Activities/Duties performed that week
    • – Skills/Information learned that week
    • – Problems encountered and how they were solved that week
  • Submission of one-page weekly log with name, days, dates and hours worked each week placed in the left-hand corner. This can be added to the top of the journal for convenience.
  • Completion of a final oral presentation/demonstration that is open to the Thomas community and that incorporates the following:
    A demonstration of outcomes related to  the achievement of the intern’s five contracted learning objectives.

Form: Learning Contract

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