Students do 40 hours of work for 1 hour of credit and typically take the internship for either 2 or 4 hours. Students may count up to 8 hours of internship credit toward the major, beyond the minimum requirements. Recent internships have been in the area of writing and publishing, though other options are available. Notices on internships are posted in the English Department. Students may also contact the Center for Vocation and Career.
Internship Guidelines
An internship provides an opportunity for you to integrate academic learning with actual work experience in your major academics area of study. It is a supervised experience intended to enhance your educational goals. These guidelines apply to all internships except for student teaching and HNGR internships.
- The internships experience should be a new, educationally rewarding one rather than a continuation or repeat of a current or previous work experience. It is a short-term position rather than a continuous job occupied by the same person over a longer period of time.
- An internship work experience should involve challenging tasks with educational value rather than tasks which would be considered as "busy work."
- A work experience can be designated as an internship for credit only if approval is obtained from your academic department in advance of the work experience.
- Before registering for an internship credit, you must complete an Application for Internship and file it with the Registrar's Office. You are expected to register for the internship during the semester or summer in which at least 50 percent of the internship will be completed.
- Receiving pay for the internship may or may not be appropriate and will be dependent on the employing organization's policy.
- An internship will not normally be allowed to be done in a business owned by your family or in an organization where the supervisor is a relative.
Internship Eligibility
Undergraduate students must have reached junior status and have completed at least 16 hours in the major before requesting an internship. If you are on academic probation you normally would not be allowed to register for an internship.
Internship Requirements and Credit
- To gain maximum benefit from an internship, it should normally be taken for a minimum of 4 credits.
- For undergraduates, no more than 12 hours of internship credit can be taken toward a degree and no more than 8 hours can be counted toward a major. These 8 hours are beyond the 36 hour minimum for the English major or the 42 hours for the Writing Concentration.
- No more than 8 hours can be earned for the same internship experience.
- A minimum of 40 clock-hours of work experience is required for one academic credit (e.g. a 4-hour internship would require a minimum of 160 clock hours of work experience).
- The internship experience will receive a final evaluation from the supervising faculty member and will be graded on a pass/fail basis.
- While you are participating in the internship, you are expected to communicate with the faculty supervisor regarding the progress of the experience. You will be expected to keep a written daily journal of the experience (or other appropriate record of tasks accomplished) and to write a final paper which summarizes and evaluates the experience. This paper should include how you were able to integrate your Christian faith with the work experience.
Internship Supervision
- All students doing an internship must have a faculty supervisor. You are expected to meet with your faculty supervisor a minimum of three times - once before the internship begins to discuss the expectations for the internship, once during the internship, and once at the end of the internship to summarize and evaluate the experience.
- An on-site visit by your faculty supervisor is expected to be made for all internships located within a 100-mile radius of Wheaton. A department chair may approve internships at distances further than 100 miles from campus.
Application forms are available in the department office.