Overview:听If you are majoring in advertising and public relations (ADPR), communication and media studies (CMS/CMC), communication and speech studies (CSS) or journalism (JOU), you can take an internship for credit by registering for听. This guide explains the process and constitutes the syllabus and policies for the COM 354 course.
Credits and Requirements:听To complete an听internship for credit, you must have junior or senior standing (at least 60 hours completed at the time of registration) and a minimum 3.0 GPA. You must work 40 hours per academic credit hour. Over the course of a 14-week semester, this works out to approximately one credit = three hrs/week, two credits = six hrs/week, three credits = nine hrs/week, and four credits = 12 hrs/week. For a seven-week term, those hours would be doubled (one credit = six hrs/week, etc). Please note that these are minimum hourly requirements. For instance, you may opt to register for two credits even if you plan to work more than six hours per week during a 14-week semester.
Terms and Registration Deadlines:听You can take COM 354 during the school year as either a 14-week, first seven weeks, or second seven weeks class during the fall and spring semesters. You can also take COM 354 over the summer for the full 12-week term or just the first or second six weeks. The registration deadlines vary. For fall, spring, and summer (12 weeks), you must register within the first three weeks of the semester. For first and second seven weeks, registration takes place during the first week of the term. And, for summer first and second six weeks, you must register within the first three days of the term.听Once you submit your Internship Agreement Form by following the process laid out below, the registration process typically takes two to three days. But please be aware that it is your responsibility to confirm that the internship actually shows up on your schedule; if听you don鈥檛 see COM 354, you will not get credit for it. Also, note that you will be charged听summer tuition rates听for internships taken over the summer and that retroactive credit is not possible.
Major Restrictions:听COM 354 cannot be used to fulfill any 300-or-above level requirements (regardless of what it might say in your catalog). Majors in advertising and public relations (ADPR general and public relations concentrations), communication and media studies (CMS/CMC),听communication and speech studies (CSS),听and journalism (JOU), can count up to four credit hours of COM 354 towards their major and any additional internship credits toward general electives.听ADPR creative concentration majors can only count COM 354 towards general education electives.听JOU majors can take COM 354 for a maximum of eight credit hours, four of which may count toward their major. CSS听majors should听see their program director for approval.
Grading and Assignments:听Remember that taking an internship for credit is like taking a class. The only difference is that most of the work takes place off-campus, and the grading is pass/fail ("satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory"). In other words, yes, you听can听fail an internship.听Your grade will be based on: 1) orientation (10%): 2) your attendance at (and one-page reflection about) a听Career Services event, appointment,听or drop-in (10%); 3) your midterm report (20%); 4) your final report (30%) and 5) your internship host site supervisor鈥檚 evaluation (30%).听Final percentages of 60% or higher earn a "satisfactory" grade while final听percentages of 59% or lower earn an "unsatisfactory" grade.听If you do not submit either your final report or your site supervisor鈥檚 evaluation by the last day of classes of your internship's term, you will automatically听receive a grade of "unsatisfactory." Should you wish to request an extension or "incomplete," it is up to you to propose an alternative arrangement before the last day or your internship's term.
Fair Labor Standards for Unpaid Internships:听Like an apprenticeship, an unpaid internship should be an educational experience that benefits you more than the host site. This is why the United States听听requires host sites to assign unpaid interns a range of interesting and challenging tasks, teach them transferable skills that can be applied in other contexts and provide them with oversight and feedback based on helping students to establish and achieve their learning objectives. If this is not taking place at your internship, please contact听Christopher Boulton, the faculty internship coordinator for the Department of Communication. Your host site may need to either pay you for your work or increase the educational value of the experience.听
WHAT TO DO听BEFORE听YOUR INTERNSHIP:听
Find an Internship:鈥疶o find an internship, start by reading over Career Services' very helpful鈥Student Internship Guide.鈥疶hen, if you haven't already, log into鈥痸ia your My小优视频ampa Dashboard鈥痑nd search for available internships related to your major. You can also peruse the list of over 鈥100 local internship sites鈥痶hat have hosted 小优视频 students or use your personal/professional network of contacts to approach a potential internship site on your own.鈥疻hen applying, do your best to customize both your cover letter and CV to鈥痚mphasize which aspects of your own experience, talents and goals align with the specific duties of the internship.鈥疧nce you are hired for an internship, proceed to the next step.
Request Academic Credit:鈥疭ign in to your Handshake account. Go to the 鈥淐areer Center鈥 tab on the top left-hand side of the home page, click on 鈥淓xperiences鈥濃痜rom the Career Center page, then 鈥淪ubmit an Experience鈥 and fill out the 鈥淒etails鈥 of your internship making sure to select the 鈥淐ommunication鈥 experience template for your course. Finally, click 鈥淪ubmit Experience鈥 to complete your request. You should then see that your Experience has been successfully created and is pending approval from the Career Center.鈥 You will receive an email when your request for internship credit has been approved.
International students:鈥疊e sure to visit the International Programs Office to learn more about Curricular Practical Training (CPT). CPT is required for all internship experiences (paid and unpaid). Visit the International Programs Office鈥CPT website鈥痜or additional information or contact them at (813) 258-7433.
Communication Internship Intake Form:鈥疶his form on Handshake will help鈥痥eep everyone (including you, me, and your internship site supervisor) on the same page about the educational aspects (such as learning objectives and evaluation methods) of your internship. If the internship host site has any questions about this, please refer them to Career Services'鈥Employer Internship Guide.
小优视频 Internship Agreement:鈥疧nce you have been hired for the internship and it has been approved for credit, the Career Services Office will send you an Internship Agreement form. First, download and save the file to your own computer by using your last name (ie: BOULTON.pdf). Then enter all your information into the empty cells of the PDF (note: Course Prefix and Number is COM 354). Please note that whatever you write down as your 鈥淚nternship Title鈥 is what will appear on your college transcript. So you also might want to include the name of your internship host site. Once the form is complete, save it again and email the PDF file to鈥cboulton@ut.edu, so he can sign in the instructor box and on the approval line and send it along to the Registrar for processing. Your internship should then show up as part of your class schedule on Workday within a few days, so be sure to check that it does.鈥疦ote:鈥痀ou must have space in your schedule in order for the registration to go through. If you already have 16 credits, you might consider a two-credit internship so you don't have to petition for an overload (more than 18 credits).
For additional support: Consider utilizing Career Services鈥 drop-in services offered Monday-Friday from 2-4pm (SFB 117) or make an 鈥淚nternship Search鈥 or 鈥淚nternship 鈥 Class Credit Approval鈥 appointment through Handshake.
WHAT TO DO听DURING听YOUR INTERNSHIP:
Get Started:听As part of this course, you will need to attend one orientation session either in-person or virtually. The instructor will offer multiple sessions and will post the times and sign-up lists on SpartanLearn. On the first day of your internship, find out who will be supervising or managing you, then request a time to sit down with them to establish your weekly work schedule and a set of specific learning objectives that you hope to accomplish over the course of the internship. Finally, do your best to set up a reliable mechanism of evaluation, preferably in the form of regular feedback from your听internship site supervisor. This is important because in order to accomplish your learning objectives you will need a continuing process of on-site evaluation. You should also keep an ongoing journal throughout your internship, so you will have plenty of material at-the-ready when it comes time to write your midterm and final reports.
Be Professional:听听An internship is an exercise in pre-professional training. Therefore, you听should plan to always be on time and strive to be a reliable, dedicated and ethical colleague. Maintain听a positive attitude and willingness to learn while completing all of your tasks and responsibilities to the best of your ability. Remember,听you are not just representing yourself; you are also representing 小优视频.听Of course, it is also incumbent on your internship host site to provide a safe, professional and ethical environment for you and your work.听In any case, if any problems arise, please contact me right away. The instructor is on your side and will work to help you resolve any issues or, should the need arise, reassign you to a more healthy and productive work environment.
Midterm Report:听Halfway through your internship you will need to submit on SpartanLearn听a one to two page midterm report of your internship experience thus far. This report should provide specific examples and address the following five areas:
- the company鈥檚 founding, mission statement, product, clients/customers and number of employees and departments;
- your internship duties/responsibilities, the kinds of projects you are working on and people you are working with;
- any skills or insights gained relevant to your learning objectives and major and/or career goals;
- problems or challenges you鈥檝e had and what you鈥檝e done to solve them; and
- the amount and quality of supervision, feedback and evaluation you are getting from your site supervisor.
Career Services:听At least two weeks before the end of your internship, you must attend either a听Career Services event听of your choice,听appointment听辞谤听drop-in session. For example, should you choose to schedule an appointment or drop-in, you could request whichever of the following topics is most relevant to your individual needs: resume/cover letter, career exploration, internships, job search strategies, leveraging LinkedIn or interviewing assistance. To complete this assignment, turn in a one to two page, double-spaced reflection paper on SpartanLearn听that summarizes the information gleaned from the Career Services event, appointment or drop-in session and describes, in detail, what future steps you plan to take based on what you learned.
Final Report:听At the end of your internship or during the last week of the term (whichever comes first), you will need to complete the Final Report (Student) Qualtrics Survey linked through SpartanLearn in order to receive academic credit for your experience.
Internship Evaluation:听Towards the end of your internship, you will need to send your internship site supervisor the Internship Evaluation (Employer) Qualtrics Survey. Be sure they complete it听before the last day of your internship's term so you can earn academic credit for the experience. Some of the questions include the following:
- How many total hours did the intern work?
- What were the intern鈥檚 major accomplishments in terms of projects completed and/or goals reached?听
- Which of their learning objectives were achieved and how?听
- What were the biggest challenges the intern faced, and how did the intern overcome them?听
- What did you teach the intern (equipment/software, teamwork, specialized vocabulary, etc.) that intern didn't already know?听
- How might 小优视频 better prepare our students to be successful interns?
Other course policies:听Please note that听小优视频鈥檚听campus-wide policy statements听also apply to this course.
