Psychology 481:  Internship

            The internship opportunity is designed for the upper-level psychology major to integrate an applied, professional work experience with academic coursework. Internships can be a “foot in the door” for a future job in a psychology-related field, and of course graduate programs and employers value work experience. Before registering for Psychology 481, you must complete a detailed proposal which must then be approved by the psychology department. Follow these directions for completing your proposal:

1. Identify an internship site. It is your responsibility to identify a potential field placement and an on-site supervisor. You may want to make appointments to talk to several people working in psychology-related positions.  Other resources include: the red internship notebook in Long 109 (next to the fax machine), the psychology faculty, and the career services center. The work you propose to do must be psychological in nature and it must be supervised by a qualified person at the internship site. Use section 6 of this document to help formulate your plans.

2. Determine the number of hours you will work. In general, you may receive one hour of credit for every 40 hours of work on-site. Forty hours at one site fulfills the General Studies Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR).  Most students find it takes more than 40 hours to become a contributing worker at their internship site; consider committing to 80, 120 or even 160 hours of work. A total of 4 credit hours of internship may be applied as an elective in the psychology major. Distributed across the semester, the work-load looks approximately like this:

3. Find a faculty sponsor.  A member of the permanent full-time faculty must agree to serve as your faculty sponsor. Prior to filling out your internship proposal, meet with your faculty sponsor to discuss your learning goals, your academic assignments, and your planned contacts. Students often do background reading, write daily fieldnotes, and complete a final paper, project or presentation for their academic assignments. You will meet periodically with your faculty sponsor, so your progress may be monitored and any problems addressed.

4. Complete the first four sections of the attached INTERNSHIP PROPOSAL form. This includes information about yourself, including your GPA and the courses you have taken in psychology; information about the internship site; your learning goals; planned contacts with your faculty sponsor; academic assignments; and a brief narrative about the role of the proposed internship in your education. You will need signatures from your faculty sponsor and the department chair.  Section 6 will be filled out with your on-site supervisor later.

5. Submit the proposal to your faculty sponsor for distribution to the faculty.  The proposals will be evaluated based on: your eligibility for an internship, the appropriateness of the proposed experience for a psychology major, and the clarity and detail of the learning goals and academic assignments. Your sponsor will notify you of the department’s decision.

6. Fill out an Experiential Education Registration Form, available from the Registrar’s Office and the Career Services Office. You will need this form and the approved Internship Proposal in order to register for your internship. Now you can register!

7. Take your copy of the Internship Proposal  with you when you begin your internship. You and your on-site supervisor will fill out Section Six together, specifying your job duties and the nature of your supervisory contacts. Also take the Internship Evaluation form to give to your supervisor to fill out at the end of your internship. Notice that you will evaluated on your professionalism and positive attitude as well as on the quality of your work.

8.  You will be assigned a letter grade by your faculty sponsor.  This grade will be based on your on-site supervisor’s evaluation of your performance and your faculty sponsor’s evaluation of your experience and your academic assignments, as negotiated with your faculty sponsor. Pass/Fail is not an option because the internship is a part of your major. If during the course of your internship your work is determined to be unacceptable to your on-site supervisor or agency you will be withdrawn from the course and your grade will be an F.

9. Add a summary of your internship experience to the red internship note-book in Long 109