Promoting campus internships a ‘win-win’ for students, departments

As a campus “Quick Fix,” the Career Services Office has been charged with increasing the number of internships on campus that are available to students.

Since budgets are tight, internships for academic credit can be an option to explore in addition to offering paid internships if your budget allows. Many students are interested in academic credit internships.

Any internship for which a student is to receive credit must have faculty approval for the experience to receive credit and a faculty supervisor to oversee and officially “grade/evaluate” the experience at the end of the semester. Internships can be one semester in length, yearlong, on-going and/or just for the summer. Many departments and academic units have hosted interns and are currently hosting them for the coming semester.

If you are interested in exploring how interns could better serve your unit, office or department, Career Services can share examples and offer counsel.  Linda Peacock-Landrum, director of Career Services, says that even modest expansion — say, a half dozen or a dozen additional opportunities in 2010-2011 — will pay significant dividends for the institution and participating students. (The Career Services Office follows its own advice, and recently established its fourth internship for fall 2010.) To learn more, connect with Linda at peacockl@uwgb.edu or by phone at ext. 2163.