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English, Technical Communication, and Media Arts
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Home >> ETCMA >> Undergraduate >> Undergraduate Internships

Undergraduate Internships

What is an internship and who qualifies?

An internship is designed for students with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA pursuing either the B.S. in Technical and Professional Communication, B.A. in New Media Arts, or the B.A. in English and Professional Communication. In particular, an internship provides the student who has no "hands-on" experience in technical and professional communication valuable professional experience in the workplace.

The internship may involve extended work on one project or it may include a variety of shorter assignments that technical and professional communicators do for a living. In all cases, the student works with one sponsoring organization. Sample internships might include work on user documentation, public relations, editing, website design, graphic design, proposals, instructional design, project reports, multimedia projects, and marketing materials. Many other communication or media projects would also qualify.

An internship is worth 3 semester credit hours. In order to qualify for an internship, a student can not be on academic probation, and that student must have completed approximately 50% of the course work in the major beyond the core. Each student is responsible for finding an internship, but the department will help in the effort. The student intern should work at least 120 hours, and the student’s advisor monitors the internship. Since internships are learning experiences, they may be unpaid; but since the intern will do actual work, paid internships are also appropriate.

How do I apply for an internship?

1. You submit to the Program Coordinator a general description of the internship including reasons why you wish to do the internship. The internship description should include the following information:

  • when the internship will be served (beginning and closing dates)

  • types of tasks to be done and skills to be learned

  • name, title, address, and phone number of company supervisor

Note: The description must be submitted at the beginning of the semester during which you plan to pre-register for the internship.

2. The Director of Undergraduate Studies informs you in writing as to whether or not theinternship has been approved.

3. You are assigned a faculty advisor once the internship has been approved.

4. You submit to your faculty advisor a memo of agreement from the company supervisor that describes the internship. This memo should contain the following information:

  • number of work hours included in the internship

  • beginning and ending dates of the internship

  • activities to be performed during the internship

5. You pre-register for 3 hours of internship credit.

What do you do to complete the internship?

1. Meet with faculty advisor at least twice during the semester when the internship istaking place

2. Turn in three progress reports

3. Submit a log or notebook of activities/tasks done during the internship

4. Submit two final reports to your faculty advisor:
  •   A detailed formal report describing the internship with sample internship documents  (actual work done during the internship)

  • A final memo report addressed to the faculty advisor describing the internshipexperience