Internships and Jobs
For Students
WHEN CAN I DO AN INTERNSHIP AND RECEIVE CREDIT FOR IT?
If an internship employer doesn鈥檛 require you to earn academic credit while serving the internship, you may pursue that opportunity without special permission (or permits) from the department.
However, if the employer requires that you earn academic credit while serving the internship, here are the prerequisites the department has before issuing you a permit to register for internship academic credits.
Finding an Internship or Professional Practicum
There are many ways to track down the internship that鈥檚 right for you. The department internship opportunities on bulletin boards in our office and emails students when they become available. Students also may start with a telephone call to area newspapers, magazines or other news organization. Students are encouraged to register with the USF Career Center Handshake internship and job posting site.
The right opportunity for you
Ideally, the opportunity you have found will fall into your area of professional interest. But sometimes you may want to use an internship or practicum to explore a new area or to simply round out your journalist skills. One of the best ways to determine if an opportunity is right for you is to talk to your adviser about it.
APPLYING FOR AN INTERNSHIP OR PRACTICUm
JMS majors wishing to do an internship for credit will enroll for MMC 4945 if an undergraduate; graduate students enroll for MMC 6945 (鈥淧rofessional Practicum鈥�). Each is for three credits.
The requirement for a first internship for undergraduate majors is 9 credits in the major, consisting of:
- MMC 3602 (Mass Communication and Society)
- MMC 2100 (Writing for Mass Media)
- VIC 3001 (Intro. to Visual Communication)
Graduate students who want to enroll in Practicum must first complete 12 credits toward their degree. Students鈥� job sites are not appropriate internship/practicum settings.
Prior to receiving permission to enroll in either course, students must first submit to the internship instructor the following:
- A full description of the duties required at the proposed internship and the skills the student expects to either learn or improve as a result of the internship.
- Full contact information, including name, title, phone number and e-mail address of the student鈥檚 on-site supervisor.
- Verification that the number of required hours for the internship (see below) will be met and a tentative schedule of days and hours to be spent at the internship.
In general, internships will be approved if they involve online, print or broadcast journalism; public relations, advertising or marketing; filmmaking; or other digital communication roles that entail storytelling, digital media production or research.
The following are required of ALL interns:
- The completion of a minimum of 120 hours at the internship.
- The submission of a weekly e-mail to the internship instructor, due at the end of each week. This e-mail will recount the accomplishments of the previous week and a look ahead to what the intern will undertake the following week.
- Completion of a final journal describing the skills learned and an overall evaluation of the internship鈥檚 value from the intern鈥檚 perspective, due the day after classes end.
- A written evaluation by the on-site intern supervisor on a form provided by the department, due the day after classes end. The evaluation questions may be downloaded here: Internship Supervisor Evaluation Questions.
Internships will, in general, not be considered or approved beyond the first two weeks of a semester, or in the case of a summer internship within the first two weeks of either session A or session B.
Students who choose to do an internship during the summer will be supervised by the Journalism and Digital Communication Department Director. The same rules and policies apply in summer as in fall/spring.
Credit for an internship completed in the summer term will not be transferable to either the fall or spring terms.
Multiple internships or practica
Both undergraduate and graduate students in JDC can take up to two internships for credit. Internships carry variable credit, from 1-3 credits, depending upon the amount of work involved and the number of hours worked.
In addition, on a case-by-case basis, and at the discretion of the internship supervisor, a student who has completed substantial work, either for the campus newspaper, The Crow鈥檚 Nest or on an ad-hoc basis for Neighborhood News Bureau, may be granted permission to enroll for a first internship with 6 credits from the above.
Students who remain in the major have the option to enroll later in the program for a second internship which should be in an area of journalism or media that is substantially different from the first internship, thereby creating the opportunity to learn new skills or refine those learned from the initial internship experience.
Internship applications may be accessed through the JDC website. Internships will, in general, not be considered or approved beyond the first two weeks of a semester.
SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
Students may choose to do an internship during the summer term. In that instance, they will be supervised by the Department Director. The same rules and policies apply in summer as in spring/fall. When registering for an internship, summer students will, in general, register for the 鈥淐鈥� session.
Credit for an internship completed in the summer term will not be transferable to either the fall or spring terms.