Frequently Asked Questions about the Internship Program
1. Why should I do an internship?
An internship can help you determine whether or not a particular field is right for you. If you really don't like working with kids, it's better to find that out now when you only have to deal with them for a semester rather than discovering it after you get a full-time job doing it.
An internship can also give you an edge in finding a job after graduation. In some cases, people find full-time employment at the same place where they do their internship. Other times, people find jobs at other places because someone at their internship site put in a good word for them or let them know about an opportunity elsewhere.
Doing an internship also looks good on graduate school or job applications. It's something else you can put on your resume and talk about in personal essays and interviews. Plus, assuming that things go well, that gives you another person who can write letters of recommendation for you. (Of course, if you make a bad impression, it can work against you, so only do an internship if youre serious about it.)
2. How much academic credit will I receive?
You can receive 3, 6, or 9 credit hours. How much credit you receive depends on the number of hours you put in at your internship site and whether you are doing an internship in Fall, Spring, or Summer.
During Fall and Spring, you basically earn 3 credits for every 7 hours per week that you spend at your internship site. To earn 3 credits, you spend 7 hours per week on internship-related duties; to earn 6 credits, you spend 14 hours per week on internship-related duties; to earn 9 credits, you spend 21 hours per week on internship-related duties. What you do during your internship time is determined by you, your supervisor at the internship site, and the nature of the organization where you're interning. However, once you commit to putting in a certain number of hours per week, you are expected to keep that commitment. If the agency cannot guarantee you the necessary hours worth of work per week, then you need to look for another place to do an internship. If once in a while you do less than your scheduled hours in a week, you will need to make it up some other week.
During the Summer term, the internship-related hours are doubled: To earn 3 credits, you spend 14 hours per week on internship-related duties; to earn 6 credits, you spend 28 hours per week on internship-related duties; to earn 9 credits, you spend 40 hours per week on internship-related duties. This is available for the Full Summer Term (usually the months of June and July) only.
If you do a 3-credit internship, you will receive credit for either PSYC 4492 or SOCI 4492, depending on which you prefer. If you do a 6-credit internship, you will receive credit for both PSYC 4492 and SOCI 4492. If you do a 9-credit internship, you will receive credit for PSYC 4492, SOCI 4492, and INTN 4920. You must register for these classes (and pay for them just like any other classes) in order to receive academic credit. The INTN 4920 class can be used as an upper-division general elective, although it cannot be counted as part of a major. Psychology/Sociology majors cannot apply any internship hours to their major if they have already taken PSYC 449A, SOCI 449A, PSYC 4498, or SOCI 4498. However, internship hours can still be used as elective or minor credit in those situations.
3. Where should I do my internship?
There is no single answer to this question, because everyone's interests are different. Your instructors are not going to tell you where to do your internship. You are responsible for arranging your internship placement. This means that you need to think about the type of job you want to have after you finish school, locate an agency or organization that provides that type of service, and make contact with that agency to ask whether or not they would be willing to accept an intern.
Having said that, you can certainly ask your advisor or another Psychology/Sociology professor for advice on where to do an internship. Although they won't set one up for you, they might be able to point you in a direction, but you need to have identified your interests beforehand. Also, if you know other students who have done internships, ask them what their experience was like - they might have inside information your professors won't.
Where to look? The phone book is a good place to start. Look in the Yellow Pages under categories like "Youth Organizations", "Social Service Organizations", "Senior Citizens' Services", and "Child Care Services". When you find an organization that looks compatible with your interests, call them up and find out what their policy is on accepting interns. If you know someone who works at an agency you're interested in, use that contact person to learn more about the possibility of doing an internship.
4. Will I get paid for being an intern?
No. In fact, it is against the rules to be paid for doing an internship. The university cannot allow students to receive academic credit and be paid for doing the same thing. The only exception is that you can be paid a stipend, which is a small amount of money designed to cover basic living expenses. Stipends are not usually given to interns at human services agencies.
5. I already work at a child care center/nursing home/prison. Can I count that as an internship?
No. The goal of an internship is to expose you to something new and different, and by definition a job that you already have is neither new nor different. Also, allowing that would not be fair to those students who have jobs that don't translate well into human service internships (e.g., waiting tables, processing chicken), and it also goes against the rule that you cannot be paid for doing an internship.
6. What will I do at my internship?
Your duties and activities at your internship placement will vary depending on where you're working. However, previous interns working in social service organizations have participated in the following activities:
- Leading group activities at an after-school program, nursing home, etc.
- Observing counseling sessions
- Assisting with maintenance of client records
- Conducting psychosocial assessments
- "Shadowing" employees to see what they do in their daily activities
- Sitting in on treatment team meetings
As an intern, you are not likely to have much choice in the duties you are given. By letting you participate there, the internship site is doing you a favor. Do not complain to people at your internship site about your duties. Consider it a learning experience in that you are learning what aspects of this job you do and don't like.
However, you're not there to be "cheap labor" either. You are supposed to be getting experience that's related to your future career, and they shouldn't have you spend all your time fetching coffee, making copies, answering the phone, or filing paperwork. If you feel that you are being taken advantage of, or that you've been misled about what is expected of you, talk to Dr. Johnson or your PSYC/SOCI internship instructor.
7. Will I have assignments for the internship classes I'm taking?
Yes. You are required to keep a daily journal and submit regular progress reports to your internship instructor. In these reports, you need to describe what you've been doing and how many hours you've worked. You should write in your journal every day you are at your internship site, and in your journal entries you should reflect on what you're doing, try to tie it in with things you've learned in your classes, and consider how it applies to your future career plans. You will be turning these in as part of your grade. You must also submit an evaluation from your agency supervisor at the end of the academic term.
The internship is not intended to be "easy credits". It will be a different type of work than a traditional class, and might even be less work on some dimensions (e.g., no exams), but it will still require time and effort on your part. Your instructors take the internship program very seriously and expect you to do the same. If we send out lousy interns, then agencies won't want to work with us in the future, meaning that other students will not be able to do internships. Additionally, you might be interested in working at this agency after you graduate; if you haven't made a good impression on them during your internship, they certainly won't hire you as an employee.