Your internship can be an extremely valuable experience, providing you the opportunity to work in the medium that you are interested in for several weeks. There are a number of things you can do to make your experience much more rewarding.
Plan Your Internship
Your internship needs to be planned in advance. Typically, a student starts making industry contacts in November or December prior to the summer during which the internship will occur. Prior to the semester that you do your internship, you need to talk with your advisor about where you are doing the internship and fill out the appropriate forms. Many companies have applications and forms to be completed in advance by the student before they will grant permission for an internship. DO NOT assume anything.
Follow the Internship Checklist (Things YOU are responsible for)
1. Early in the semester, prior to doing your internship, contact your advisor.
2.Discuss where you want to do your internship and receive faculty approval of your internship site.
3. Contact your potential internship sponsor and find out how to apply for the internship.
4. Complete the required internship forms for both the university and the sponsoring business.
5. Enroll in COMM-483. You must be enrolled in COMM-483 prior to doing your internship. If you are not enrolled in COMM-483 during the term in which you are doing your internship, NO course credit will be earned.
6. Keep a daily journal of your activities and what you learned each day.
7. At the mid-term, you are responsible for securing the mid-term evaluation form so that your employer can evaluate your progress and submit the completed form to your instructor.
8. At the end of the semester, you are responsible for securing the final evaluation form so that your employer can evaluate your internship and submit the completed form to your instructor.
9. At the end of your internship you are to prepare a paper based on your journals as to what you did and how you did it. This paper is to be turned in to your instructor on the last day of classes.
10. You will be interviewed twice during the semester by your instructor, either by phone or email. You are required to respond in a timely manner to his or her inquiry.
Complete the Internship Requirements
- You are required to work in your career field or related area 150 hours to earn a 3 hour credit.
- You are required to keep a detailed daily journal of all of your activities with dates, times, places, and the work that you are doing.
- You are required to communicate with your instructor twice during the course of the semester. Make sure your instructor has your email and phone contact information.
- You also should keep copies of any materials or projects produced, if allowed.
- If you produce anything for "air," be sure to keep an "air check" of the project.
- At the end of your internship you are to prepare a paper based on your journals as to what you did and how you did it. You will chronicle your internship and explain how you felt the experience affected you. Your journal is an integral part of this paper.
- You are responsible for obtaining the mid-term and final employer evaluation report forms from this website or the communications office and delivering them to your employer. Your internship supervisor is to evaluate your performance at the mid point and the end of your internship and forward the evaluations to the department. The department’s phone number is 828-227-7482. If you have any questions concerning your internship you should contact your academic advisor via e-mail or voice mail.