Internships:

General Information
Internships, JOUR 4200, provide students practical experience in journalism or mass communications. Students are encouraged to complete an internship in their area of interest or specialization. An internship may be taken for credit only once. In all situations the student must work under the supervision of a professional in that field. To be eligible for an internship, students must have completed at least 12 hours in journalism (including Journalism 2510) and have attained junior standing before registering for credit. Internship opportunities may be provided to the student by the Unit's field experience coordinator or may be solicited by the student independently of the department. In either case, internships must be approved by the Unit's field experience coordinator prior to registration.

Student Responsibilities
Students are expected to maintain professional conduct; conforming to dress, ethical and performance standards of the company or institution in which they are assigned. They are expected to take instructions from their intern site supervisor and abide strictly by the hours agreed upon by both the University and the work site.

At the conclusion of the internship, interns will write a summary on their activities synthesizing the experience with their academic preparation and career goals. Interns will provide their site supervisors with evaluation forms and other required materials and are responsible for returning the forms to the Unit's field experience coordinator by assigned deadlines. The intern site supervisor will be responsible for assigning the grade for the internship experience; however, the final grade in JOUR 4200 is determined by a number of factors, including the intern site supervisor's recommendation.

Supervisor Responsibilities
Intern site supervisors are encouraged to assign work that challenges the students and prepares them for a career. The company must invest training and supervisor time in the internship program. The company is also required to reimburse student interns for out-of-pocket expenses related to the internship (i.e., travel to assignments, film and processing, etc.). The intern site supervisor should confer with the Unit's field experience coordinator at regular intervals informally and complete brief evaluations of the intern's performance as requested. These forms will be returned to the Unit's field experience coordinator by the end of the semester.

The MINIMUM period for an internship is 150 work hours. The student may work longer, of course, depending on the agreement between the student and the internship site. Students are encouraged to put in at least 10-12 hours a week during the internship. A full-time internship (40 hours per week) is ideal.

Download Internship Paperwork:

Internship Application
Evaluation of Student Intern
Internship Agreement
Internship General Information
Confidential Student Evaluation of Internship