IUPUI Department of Sociology
Faculty Guidelines
The R494 Internship Experience (1/07)
Eligibility for internships
Students must be declared minors or majors in sociology. Prerequisites include 12 credit hours of sociology (6 at IUPUI), with a 3.0 GPA in sociology and 2.5 overall. Students cannot become interns where they already work for pay. Students should also have completed coursework that supports the internship. For example, if they are to be involved in program evaluation, they need to have completed methods and statistics. If they are working with girls, they need to have completed a course on gender and/or family. Some sociology majors elect to do an internship as their capstone course. Such students must be a second semester junior or a senior, have 80+ credit hours, and have completed - at the very least - Theory, Research methods and 4 out of 5 electives.
How students find internships
Information about the goals and structure of the sociology internship program are listed on the department website. Students may consult the department’s website or the career center’s list of popular internship sites. However, most students develop internships in collaboration with a faculty member they have had as an instructor. Internships must be organized well in advance of the beginning of a semester. All internships should be reported to the director of undergraduate studies.
Faculty responsibilities
1. Interest and eligibility form. Once a student has identified you as a potential faculty advisor for the internship, s/he will complete an internship interest and eligibility form. (This form is linked to the department website.) Faculty advisors are responsible for ascertaining whether students meet the academic requirements for the internship. They also need to make sure that students have the time to do an internship. A student can be stretched too thin, taking a full load of classes, working at a paid job and doing an internship.
2. Proposal form. Once a student is deemed academically qualified to pursue an internship and has the needed time, s/he should be encouraged to contact an employer directly about arranging an internship. Students should take an Employer Packet (consisting of internship proposal form, employer guidelines, informed consent form, midterm and final evaluation forms for employers), Once it looks like a good match between student and organization, the student should submit a completed proposal to their faculty advisor, who in turn will suggest modifications as needed and sign it. Once the form is complete and signed by all parties, copies should be provided to the intern supervisor, the faculty advisor, the student intern and the undergraduate studies director.
Internships are meant to be pre-professional experiences, so student interns should NOT spend the majority of their time in unskilled or semi-skilled tasks such as filing, answering the phone, cleaning, chauffeuring, etc. Intern positions should help students gain important employment experience and insights into applying sociology in the real world. Jobs typically involve social service (e.g., victim advocacy, youth program development), social science research (e.g., program evaluation), public relations for a non-profit (e.g., United Way), political advocacy (e.g., state house intern), fundraising (e.g., grant development) or community organizing. At least three specific learning objectives should be included as part of the internship proposal.
3. Arrange for student registration in R494. The faculty advisor should notify the office coordinator, Amy Wickstrom, who will assign the student a section number for the internship.
4. Risk management . Before the student begins the internship, the faculty advisor should have the student complete an informed consent form (available on the website), for risk management purposes. This form has been approved by the university to minimize our chances of being legally responsible for intern actions or accidents.
5. Criminal background check. Most organizations will do their own criminal background checks, especially if interns work with children.
6. Human subjects clearance. If the student will be involved in gathering or analyzing data on individuals, even already collected, you should get in touch with research and sponsored programs about what forms will need to be completed.
7. Early contact with job supervisor. The faculty advisor should phone the intern (job) supervisor early in the semester and make sure that they know how to contact us if a problem should occur. Ideally, the faculty advisor should arrange to meet the job supervisor in person around the time of the midterm evaluation; perhaps to also observe the student at work. Important mid-course corrections can occur this time, ensuring a good internship experience.
8. Meeting interns. It is recommended that a faculty advisor meet with the student intern every other week, following submission of weekly electronic journal entries. This way the faculty advisor will know what has gone on during the time period without having to use meeting time for that purpose. Meetings can be devoted to dealing with intern concerns and with developing the final paper. Typical concerns include the following: too much work/too little work or too much “busy” or unskilled work, too much responsibility/too little responsibility. Students should be encouraged to take their concerns to their intern supervisor at the workplace, but you can help them practice what to say.
9. Grading the internship
Students are responsible for submitting the following to their faculty advisors:
a. Student Midtern Evaluation by themselves and Employer Midterm Evaluation by employers (forms on website)
b. Student Final Evaluation by themselves and Employer Final Evaluation by employers (employer’s evaluation is worth 50% of the final course grade) (forms on website)
c. electronic submission to faculty advisor of a weekly journal, describing work activities, problems and how they were solved, and generally what they have learned so far. Timely completion of these journal entries is worth 20% of the final course grade.
c. completion of a 10-15 page paper (see Internship Paper Guidelines on website)
Advisors should encourage students to complete this paper during the regular semester. A student’s weekly journal can be an important source for this final paper. If an incomplete must be given, students should be given a very short time frame in writing (e.g., 2 weeks, not the year IUPUI grants). If an internship is to count as the sociology capstone, the required paper needs to integrate material from the entire major.
10. Advertise and expand upon intern accomplishments. Consider asking interns to write a brief synopsis of what they liked about their internship for the departmental bulletin board or webpage. Students who work without pay make themselves eligible to apply for service learning scholarships. Students whose intern work involves research might be encouraged to apply for undergraduate research grants.
List of relevant forms available on the website: interest and eligibility form, proposal form, informed consent form, midterm and final evaluation forms for students and employers.