“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%).”
Internships are a great opportunity to find out more about your chosen field while building your work experience and a portfolio. CDS majors can take COMM 499: Internship for credit and to satisfy the Experiential Learning (EL) graduation requirement. If they take it for 3 credits, then the internship can count as an upper-level elective in the major.
Internships for CDS majors – be sure to join the Communication + Digital Studies Facebook Group to receive recent internship and job posts. This group is intended for CDS majors and DS and Journalism minors.
If you are interested in pursuing an internship, please do the following:
1) Find an internship – make sure that it is appropriate for the major, and that the work you will do meets the university requirements for internships. You can find the university guidelines and policies on the Career Center’s internship webpage. Once you have a worksite for your internship, talk to a faculty member in the major about serving as the faculty advisor.
2) Complete the Academic Internship Contract – if you are taking the internship for credit then you need to make sure that you are able to work the minimum number of hours and meet the other criteria. Then complete the Academic Internship Contract on the Career Center’s webpage. Share this with the faculty advisor for your internship.
3) Submit the completed Academic Internship Contract by Wednesday of the first week of classes. Make sure that the contract includes all relevant signatures (student, work supervisor, faculty sponsor), and is fully filled out. Send the completed contract via email to the department chair, Anand Rao, and copy your faculty sponsor. The department chair will contact you and your faculty sponsor with any questions, and will then process the internship contract.
The deadline for Fall 2021 internships is Wednesday, August 25th at 5pm – email them to Anand Rao (arao at umw.edu).
Fall 2021 Internship and Work Study Opportunities:
CDS Social Media and Student Aide: paid position – to work with the CDS Department, with a focus on managing CDS digital media. This is a student-work position, and can be taken as a for-credit internship (student’s choice – up to 3 credits). Preferred: CDS major or DS minor, with relevant coursework (Social Media, Digital Marketing, etc), and experience. This person will assist Anand Rao with developing a digital media strategy for the CDS department, and will work to develop social media content, video content, and materials for the department’s website. This person will also help support with departmental events and other initiatives. To apply, contact Anand Rao at arao@umw.edu and include a statement of interest, including, but not limited to: 1) if you are a CDS major or DS minor, 2) any relevant course experience, 3) any relevant experience with social media management, 4) any relevant photo/video experience, 5) ideas or suggestions for what you would like to work on in this position. Applications are due by Friday, August 27, 2021. Contact Anand with any questions. The position will pay $10/hour, and will likely be 5-10 hours/week.
Modern Languages & Literatures Social Media: paid position – to work with the MDLL department to assist with social media, event flyers, and the department’s newsletter. Contact Jennifer Buist (jbuist@umw.edu) to apply or for more information. Approx. 5-10 hours/week.
Marketing and Communications Intern – paid position ($15/hour; 10 hours/week, up to 150 total hours) -Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative. VMPI is a proposal to modernize and update Virginia’s mathematics curriculum in grades K-12 to align instruction with the essential knowledge and skills students need to succeed in the 21st century economy. VPMI is looking for a Marketing & Communications Intern to assist with this work. Get more information through Handshake: https://umw.joinhandshake.com/jobs/5176133/share_preview
Legacy Park Sports Internship – unpaid position/available for college credit. The job duties are to help assist in creating a Roku Tv Channel. Interns will learn how to upload videos to the channel, as well as edit the videos. They put full softball and baseball game footage on their roku channel every week. Students will also have the opportunity to film softball games once a month, and take pictures to upload on Facebook, Instagram , Twitter, etc. Contact Scott Kiewe (scottkiewe@legacyparksports.com) for more information and to apply.