Internships and Experiential Learning

Not all education happens in the classroom. Certain lessons can only be learned through direct hands-on experiences outside of the classroom with real world experiences in the field. Internships and experiential learning, or field experiences, give students the opportunity to connect one-on-one with faculty, fellow students, and other professionals.

Internships and experiential learning programs provide a supervised period of practical work experience that helps students explore various career fields and learn to apply classroom principles to real-world situations. Students will acquire leadership and management skills, professional growth and personal fulfillment that can’t be gained in the classroom.

How to complete an Internship or Experiential Learning

Eligibility and requirements for internships and experiential learning vary by major. Credits are assigned on the basis of 40 hours per credit. Students can earn up to 9 credits per internship and 6 credits per experiential learning experience.

Before

To register for an internship or experiential learning for credit, a student must:

1. Search for an internship on Handshake or other sources with guidance from your faculty mentor/faculty advisor.
2. Download Experiential Learning Checklist(PDF)
3. Download the Experiential Learning / Internship Registration Form(Word Doc)
4. Obtain signatures from the faculty mentor, faculty advisor and employer/organization.  Submit the Experiential Learning/Internship Registration form to the Registrar’s Office before the work experience begins
5. Download and complete the Time Log (Excel Form) to track hours for your work experience

After

At the conclusion of the internship or experiential learning experience, all completed paperwork must be submitted to the faculty mentor including:

• Evaluation of student from faculty (PDF)
• Evaluation of student from employer (PDF)
• Evaluation of employer from student (PDF)

The faculty mentor is responsible for submitting a grade for the work experience. Grading can be either pass/fail or a letter grade with the approval of the faculty mentor.