Overview:听If you are majoring in Advertising and Public Relations (ADPR), Communication and Media Studies (CMS), Communication and Speech Studies (CSS) or Journalism (JOU), you can take an internship for credit by registering for听. This guide explains the process and constitutes the syllabus and policies for the COM 354 course.
Credits and Requirements:听To complete an听internship for credit, you must have junior or senior standing (at least 60 hours completed at the time of registration) and a minimum 3.0 GPA. You must work 40 hours per academic credit hour. Over the course of a 14-week semester, this works out to approximately one credit = three hrs/week, two credits = six hrs/week, three credits = nine hrs/week, and four credits = 12 hrs/week. For a seven-week term, those hours would be doubled (one credit = six hrs/week, etc). Please note that these are minimum hourly requirements. For instance, you may opt to register for two credits even if you plan to work more than six hours per week during a 14-week semester.
Terms and Registration Deadlines:听You can take COM 354 during the school year as either a 14-week, first seven weeks, or second seven weeks class during the fall and spring semesters. You can also take COM 354 over the summer for the full 12-week term or just the first or second six weeks. The registration deadlines vary. For fall, spring and summer (12 weeks), you must register within the first three weeks of the semester. For first and second seven weeks, registration takes place during the first week of the term. And, for summer first and second six weeks, you must register within the first three days of the term.听Once you submit your Internship Agreement Form (IAF) by following the process laid out below, the registration process typically takes three to to five business days. But please be aware that it is your responsibility to confirm that the internship actually shows up on your schedule; if听you don鈥檛 see COM 354, you will not get credit for it. Also, note that you will be charged听summer tuition rates听for internships taken over the summer and that retroactive credit is not possible.
Major Restrictions:听Majors in advertising and public relations (ADPR general and public relations concentrations), communication and media studies (CMS),听communication and speech studies (CSS) and journalism (JOU), can count up to four credit hours of COM 354 towards their major and any additional internship credits toward general electives.听JOU majors can take COM 354 for a maximum of eight credit hours, four of which may count toward their major. CSS听majors should听see their program director for approval.
Grading and Assignments:听Remember that taking an internship for credit is like taking a class. The only difference is that most of the work takes place off-campus, and the grading is pass/fail ("satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory"). In other words, yes, you听can听fail an internship.听Your grade will be based on: 1) orientation (10%): 2) your attendance at (and one-page reflection about) a听Career Services event, appointment,听or drop-in (10%); 3) your midterm report (20%); 4) your final report (30%) and 5) your internship host site supervisor鈥檚 evaluation (30%).听Final percentages of 60% or higher earn a "satisfactory" grade while final听percentages of 59% or lower earn an "unsatisfactory" grade.听If you do not submit either your final report or your site supervisor鈥檚 evaluation by the last day of classes of your internship's term, you will automatically听receive a grade of "unsatisfactory." Should you wish to request an extension or "incomplete," it is up to you to propose an alternative arrangement before the last day or your internship's term.
Fair Labor Standards for Unpaid Internships:听Like an apprenticeship, an unpaid internship should be an educational experience that benefits you more than the host site. This is why the United States听听requires host sites to assign unpaid interns a range of interesting and challenging tasks, teach them transferable skills that can be applied in other contexts and provide them with oversight and feedback based on helping students to establish and achieve their learning objectives. If this is not taking place at your internship, please contact听Christopher Boulton, the faculty internship coordinator for the Department of Communication. Your host site may need to either pay you for your work or increase the educational value of the experience.听In any case, you may want to refer them to Career Services' very helpful 鈥Employer Internship Guide.听
WHAT TO DO听BEFORE听YOUR INTERNSHIP:听
Find an Internship:鈥疶o find an internship, start by reading over Career Services' very helpful鈥Student Internship Guide.鈥痀ou can also peruse the list of over 鈥100 local internship sites鈥痶hat have hosted 绿奴天花板ampa students or use your personal/professional network of contacts to approach a potential internship site on your own.鈥疨lease note that, in order for the experience to be approved for academic credit through COM 354, it will neeed to be 1) relevant to your major and 2) similar to an apprenticeship where there is a master of a trade who has the experience/credentials/expertise to teach you new skills. For instance, a company that does not specialize in social media asking you to create content or manage their Instagram is not an internship; that's a job. And while you are certainly free to volunteer for experiences like that, they will not be approved for academic credit. Once you are hired for a relevant internship where an expert will train you in new skills, proceed to the next step.
Request Academic Credit:鈥
To request academic credit for your internship, please follow the steps below..
Contact Christina Bevilacqua (cbevilacqua@ut.edu)听in the Office of Career Services听for detailed application instructions either via an听Internship Credit Drop-in (available during the school year on Tuesdays from 2-3:45pm) or by making an "Internship Credit Eligibility" appointment through SpartanHIRE.
Add your 鈥淣ew Experience鈥澨齩n听SpartanHIRE. Complete the student survey. Then, click 鈥淪ave鈥澨齛nd 鈥淪ubmit.鈥 (Do听狈翱罢听click 鈥淪ubmit for Approval鈥 yet)
Complete the "Internship Agreement Form鈥 (IAF) and send your host site supervisor the "Employer Internship Request Form鈥 (IRF) through听SpartanHIRE.
Monitor your request on听SpartanHIRE.
Once you see that both forms are complete, click听鈥淪ubmit for Approval.鈥听Your request will go to your Faculty Internship Coordinator first, followed by the Registrar鈥檚 Office.
Monitor听SpartanHIRE听and your 绿奴天花板ampa email so you can respond promptly to any requests for additional information.
Once your request is approved for academic credit by your Faculty Internship Coordinator and the Registrar鈥檚 Office, allow 3鈥5 business days for the Registrar鈥檚 Office to enroll you in the internship course in Workday. You cannot self-register, but do be sure to check to confirm that the internship appears on your schedule. Also note that you must have space in your schedule in order for the registration to go through. If you already have 16 credits, you might consider a two-credit internship so you don't have to petition for an overload (more than 18 credits).
- If you are an international student, be advised that CPTs are no longer available for COM 354 due to recent federal regulation changes. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to the International Programs Office (IPO):听/international-programs/ipo-contact-information
WHAT TO DO听DURING听YOUR INTERNSHIP:
Get Started:听As part of this course, you will need to attend one orientation session either in-person or virtually. The instructor will offer multiple sessions and will post the times and sign-up lists on SpartanLearn. On the first day of your internship, find out who will be supervising or managing you, then request a time to sit down with them to establish your weekly work schedule and a set of specific learning objectives that you hope to accomplish over the course of the internship. Finally, do your best to set up a reliable mechanism of evaluation, preferably in the form of regular feedback from your听internship site supervisor. This is important because in order to accomplish your learning objectives you will need a continuing process of on-site evaluation. You should also keep an ongoing journal throughout your internship, so you will have plenty of material at-the-ready when it comes time to write your midterm and final reports.
Be Professional:听听An internship is an exercise in pre-professional training. Therefore, you听should plan to always be on time and strive to be a reliable, dedicated and ethical colleague. Maintain听a positive attitude and willingness to learn while completing all of your tasks and responsibilities to the best of your ability. Remember,听you are not just representing yourself; you are also representing 绿奴天花板ampa.听Of course, it is also incumbent on your internship host site to provide a safe, professional and ethical environment for you and your work.听In any case, if any problems arise, please contact me right away. The instructor is on your side and will work to help you resolve any issues or, should the need arise, reassign you to a more healthy and productive work environment.
Midterm Report:听Halfway through your internship you will need to submit on SpartanLearn听a one to two page midterm report of your internship experience thus far. This report should provide specific examples and address the following five areas:
- the company鈥檚 founding, mission statement, product, clients/customers and number of employees and departments;
- your internship duties/responsibilities, the kinds of projects you are working on and people you are working with;
- any skills or insights gained relevant to your learning objectives and major and/or career goals;
- problems or challenges you鈥檝e had and what you鈥檝e done to solve them; and
- the amount and quality of supervision, feedback and evaluation you are getting from your site supervisor.
Career Services:听At least two weeks before the end of your internship, you must attend either a听Career Services event听of your choice,听appointment听or听drop-in session. For example, should you choose to schedule an appointment or drop-in, you could request whichever of the following topics is most relevant to your individual needs: resume/cover letter, career exploration, internships, job search strategies, leveraging LinkedIn or interviewing assistance. To complete this assignment, turn in a one to two page, double-spaced reflection paper on SpartanLearn听that summarizes the information gleaned from the Career Services event, appointment or drop-in session and describes, in detail, what future steps you plan to take based on what you learned.
Final Report:听At the end of your internship or during the last week of the term (whichever comes first), you will need to complete the Final Report (Student) Qualtrics Survey linked through SpartanLearn in order to receive academic credit for your experience.
Internship Evaluation:听Towards the end of your internship, you will need to send your internship site supervisor the Internship Evaluation (Employer) Qualtrics Survey. Be sure they complete it听before the last day of your internship's term so you can earn academic credit for the experience. Some of the questions include the following:
- How many total hours did the intern work?
- What were the intern鈥檚 major accomplishments in terms of projects completed and/or goals reached?听
- Which of their learning objectives were achieved and how?听
- What were the biggest challenges the intern faced, and how did the intern overcome them?听
- What did you teach the intern (equipment/software, teamwork, specialized vocabulary, etc.) that intern didn't already know?听
- How might 绿奴天花板 better prepare our students to be successful interns?
Other course policies:听Please note that听绿奴天花板ampa鈥檚听campus-wide policy statements听also apply to this course.
