Guidelines for Academic Credit Internships in CDS
“Graduates who had an internship during college were more than twice as likely to have a good job waiting for them upon graduation (42%) compared to graduates who didn’t have an internship (20%).”
· Brandon Busteed in Forbes, January 4, 2021
Internships are a great opportunity to find out more about your chosen field while building your work experience and a portfolio. The CDS Department offers three credit-bearing options for internships: COMM 499, JOUR 499 and DGST 499, any of which can count toward the major in place of an elective, if it is contracted to count as three credits.
Journalism Minors must complete either a JOUR 499: Internship or an individual study to complete their program. Any internship can also fulfill the “Beyond the Classroom” requirement for General Education.
To participate in an internship for credit, you must complete an internship contract before the start of the work period and complete the internship hours within the time-frame specified on the contract. You do not enroll directly in these courses; instead, you’ll be registered automatically once a completed academic internship contract has been approved and processed by the department chair and the University Registrar.
Process
Step 1: Find and Apply to an Internship.
Many internship opportunities are listed on Handshake, so check with the Career Center for information about accessing Handshake and other tools that will help you prepare for and find appropriate internships. Make sure the internship is appropriate for the major, and that the work you will do meets the university requirements for internships.
Step 2: Find a Faculty Sponsor.
This faculty member will supervise the academic element of your internship and assign a grade. Typically, this will be your academic advisor, but any full-time faculty member may sponsor an internship.
Step 3: Initiate the Experience Contract in Handshake.
Internships for credit must meet certain criteria in order to be eligible, so the Handshake system will review these requirements by asking you a series of questions. Then it will route the contract appropriately for approvals, including the internship’s site supervisor, your faculty advisor, the department chair, and the Registrar’s office. The Career Center’s webpage includes a series of tutorials explaining the responsibilities and approval process for each of these roles.
Once all parties have approved the contract, you will be automatically enrolled in the course so that you can receive academic credit.
Internship contracts must be initiated no later than the Wednesday of the first week of classes (for Fall and Spring 15-week terms) or the first day of classes (for all other terms).
Credits
An academic internship can earn 1 to 6 credits, depending on the number of “on site” hours you will be working within the term. (Note: a 3-credit internship is required for the Journalism Minor or to serve in place of an elective.)
The University’s policy on internships specifies the relationship between “on the job” hours in an internship and the number of academic credits that experience is eligible for. Because internships can be completed in any academic term, the amount of internship work per week will vary, as listed here:
| Credit Hours | On-Site Hours | Approximate Hours Per Week | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-Week Term (Fall or Spring) | 8-Week Term | 5-Week Term (Summer) | 10-Week Term (Summer) | ||
| 1 | 42 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| 2 | 84 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 8 |
| 3 | 126 | 8 | 16 | 25 | 13 |
| 4 | 168 | 11 | 21 | 34 | 17 |
| 5 | 210 | 14 | 26 | 42 | 21 |
| 6 | 252 | 17 | 31 | 50 | 25 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Many internship opportunities are listed on Handshake; check with the Career Center for information about accessing Handshake and other tools that will help you prepare for and find appropriate internships.
Internships opportunities of special interest to CDS majors will also be posted to a discussion board CDS Community Canvas page. Contact the department chair, Zach Whalen (zwhalen@umw.edu), if you are a CDS Major, Digital Studies Minor, or Journalism Minor and you do not already have access.
Yes!
A 1-credit internship will fulfill the Beyond the Classroom requirement. Therefore, there are some situations (for example, when paying for tuition by the credit hour) when it may make sense to enroll in a 1-credit internship even if the on-site work makes you eligible for more. Check with your advisor to see if this option is worth considering.
This is the person you work for while working on the internship. Your “boss”, for lack of a better word. This is probably the person you spoke with when applying for the internship.
These can vary, and the specific role, and because this role and the frequency of meetings is going to be recorded in the Handshake contract, make sure to discuss this ahead of time with your Faculty Sponsor. A meeting or virtual check-in every other week (or more frequently as needed) is a common arrangement.
Depending on the type of work, the faculty member may request a journal, a written reflection, a portfolio, or a self-assessment. They may also ask the site supervisor for an evaluation that will factor into the letter grade assigned for the experience. Again, all of this will be specified ahead of time in the contract.
Communication & Digital Studies encompasses a broad range of skills, but there are limits on what can reasonably count as an appropriate internship. For JOUR 499, you should be working directly for a news organization. For COMM 499 and DGST 499, your work might involve marketing, public relations, content production, community management, graphic design, video editing, or anything similar. If the work is the kind of thing you learned about or learned how to do in a CDS class, then it definitely counts.
Internships or jobs that mainly involve manual labor or retail sales are not likely to be a good fit.
Yes! There are academic departments and other units on campus who routinely hire CDS students to work as interns. While we strongly encourage internships beyond the University, these on-campus positions can also provide valuable work experience.
The University’s policy on internships states that, in order to be eligible to enroll in an internship, students must
- be a degree-seeking student at UMW
- have at least 12 hours of credit earned at UMW or a completed Associates Degree
- have a cumulative G.P.A. of 2.0 or better at the start of the semester in which the internship occurs
Recent CDS Internships
Communication & Digital Studies Majors and our Minors in Digital Studies or Journalism are in high demand for internship work. Recently, these have included:
- Friends of the Rappahannock
- The Fairy Godmother Project
- The Arts and Cultural Council of the Rappahannock
- Rappahannock United Way
- The Fredericksburg Free Press
- The Fredericksburg Advance
- Impact Church of Fredericksburg
- The Reston Letter
- UMW ESports
- UMW University Communications
- UMW Music Department
- UMW Physics Department
- UMW Women’s Lacrosse
- UMW Sustainability Programs
- UMW College of Education