Internships

What Are the Benefits of an Internship?

• The Career Involvement Program (or internship) enables a student to integrate on-campus academic study with off-campus work experience.
• It gives the student a chance to explore career choices and make more informed decisions about career goals.
• This program allows the student an opportunity to gain practical experience through on-the-job challenges and opportunities by blending knowledge gained from academic studies with real-world applications.
• Internships enhance a student's marketability.

Getting Started

There are several things you’ll need to complete to make your internship a successful one. The following is a checklist of the activities you’ll need to complete in order to be prepared to do an internship:

1. Enroll for an internship during the appropriate enrollment period with the Office of Records and Registration.

2. Visit with the Career Development Center to:

• Prepare a resume and have it approved.
• Prepare sample questions for your internship interviews and possibly do a mock interview.
• Obtain additional Employer Contacts.  Internship leads come from many sources including CDC vacancy listings and contact information, career fairs, on-campus interviews, faculty, friends and alumni.

3. Visit with faculty internship sponsor to:

• Request their sponsorship of your internship.
• Design an academic project.
• Complete the faculty portion of the Career Involvement Agreement (Learning Objectives)

4. Visit with potential employers to:

• Request internship information
• Interview for an internship
• Establish employer’s job description, goals and expectations (see sample Career Involvement Agreement)
• Negotiate offers, have employer complete and sign employer sections of the Career Involvement Agreement.

After Completing Sections 1 - 4

After all others have approved your Career Involvement Agreement, return the agreement to CDC for review.  The agreement will then be forwarded to the Office of Records and Registration for final review of proper enrollment. This agreement becomes part of the student's permanent academic record.

Requirements

The internship experience should be related to the student’s academic area and cannot be a work position that he or she has previously held. Students are not allowed to participate in an internship with a relative acting as his or her supervisor. To be eligible for the Internship, a student must be at least a sophomore (completed 30 credit hours or more).

NOTE: All internships are taken on a pass/no credit basis--not for a letter grade.

Internship Credit

An internship may be taken during the summer, fall or spring semesters, or Interterm. Variable credit is given during the summer and regular semesters, with the standard being one academic credit for 40 working contact hours. Students completing an internship during Interterm earn three credit hours by working approximately 40 contact hours per week to complete a minimum of 120 working hours. Students may gain up to six credits, plus two Interterms of three credits each, during their undergraduate years at Baker.

The faculty sponsor and the student will determine the number of credit hours after a design of the academic project is complete.

• During the fall or spring semester, internships are part of a student’s regular course load.
• During Interterm, students enroll for 3 credit hours.
• During the summer, students enroll in the appropriate number of credit hours at a reduced tuition cost of $150/hr.
• Students are responsible for the corresponding per credit hour tuition cost.

Remember

Before submitting to the Career Development Center, a Career Involvement Agreement must be completed and signed by the:

• Faculty sponsor
• Work supervisor
• Student