The English Department provides students with several internship positions within the department that give students the opportunity to explore career options, gain professional skills, and develop related work experience. Credit bearing internships are open to any registered student who has completed at least 30 credit hours and has a minimum GPA of 2.0. Students may earn up to 15 hours of internship credit per semester and may count a maximum of 24 hours of internship credit toward the 120 hours required for an undergraduate degree. No more than 6 credit hours earned in any combination of internships and independent studies may be counted towards the major.
Students have served as interns for:
- The Visiting Writers Series
- The Arts & Sciences Brown Bag Lecture Series
- The department newsletter
The Associate Chair of the English Department serves as the Faculty Sponsor for internships initiated with the English Department. The Faculty Sponsor issues the official letter from the department stating the responsibilities of the student doing the internship, and submits the mid-term and final grades, as determined by the Site Supervisor, to the Registrar’s Office.
Any faculty member can serve as the Site Supervisor for the student doing the internship. The Site Supervisor is responsible for completing the Mid-term Evaluation and Final Evaluation forms, available through the Career Development Office, for the student. In addition, the Site Supervisor must submit to the Faculty Sponsor the mid-term and final grade, by the deadlines set in the internship letter.
Once a faculty member has chosen a student to serve as an intern, the student must pick up a Learning Contract for Experiential Education from the Career Development Office (CDO), and the ENGL 465 Internship Contract, available in the English Department. In consultation with the Site Supervisor, the student then completes both the department's Internship Contract, including gaining all necessary signatures, and the CDO's Contract, with signatures from the student, faculty sponsor, and site supervisor. (The Director of Internships does not sign the Learning Contract for Experiential Education until the student's completion of the minimum requirements - GPA, credit hours completed, etc. - has been verified.) At that point, the student can request an override from the department secretary to enroll in ENGL 465.
As established by the internship letter, during the course of the internship, the student is responsible for completing four aspects of the internship. In addition to completing the specific tasks associated with the internship project, the student will complete:
- Weekly (or as frequently has been arranged between the Site Supervisor and the student) journals/logs that report on the work that has been completed the previous week.
- A Mid-term Self-Evaluation that addresses the Educational Objectives listed in the learning contract and the student’s progress in attaining these goals.
- A Final Self-Evaluation that addresses, among other topics, the skills learned through the course of the internship.
- An internship portfolio that includes the written materials prepared by you for the internship agency.
Additional questions regarding English Department internships should be directed to the Associate Chair, or Tracy Collingwood, Director of the Career Development Office, Gregory Hall.