Faculty Internship Guide

Did you know that almost 70 percent of internships turn into full time job offers, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers?

Career Services offers faculty and staff a variety of resources to help enhance student marketability through internships.

Below are resources to assist you in finding information for career counseling. If students need additional assistance, do not hesitate to refer them to us.

Newly released checklist for all University Internship Programs by the Office of the Provost

Click Here to Download

As always, we welcome feedback and questions. If you have ideas relating to additional services we can offer students or comments, please contact us at Ext. 8878 or careerandtestingcenter@lamar.edu

  • Helping Students Plan for Internships

    Students may approach a faculty person for advice as they begin brainstorming potential internships, seeking input on types of experiences or particular sites that have the potential to move them towards their intellectual and career objectives. Faculty often has significant professional networks owing to in-depth knowledge and connections in their chosen field. Even if these connections are lacking, the faculty person can help the student thoughtfully explore their options. What does the student wish to gain from the experience? Exposure to a given field and the work involved? Technical skills? Personal growth/sophistication? The selection of a major and career exploration? Who is the best person to act as faculty sponsor for this particular internship? Sometimes the same experience may be examined through significantly different perspectives based upon the discipline of the faculty helping to design and assess the experience.

  • Why use Career Services for Internships?

    • Guides you with mutual trust and understanding
    • Classroom presentations regarding importance of internships and services offered by The Career and Testing Center (contact us to arrange a presentation)
    • Classroom workshops on resume writing (contact us to arrange a workshop)
    • Inspires you in bad times
    • Internship Orientation for each student looking to engage into an Internship/Co-op.
    • Personal help to your students seeking internships including resume, cover letter, internship search, interview skill and application process assistance; development and availability of quality working and learning opportunities for interns; local, regional, state, national, and international internships available; internship advertising on Cardinal Connect (online job listing), faculty and department e-mail, and via posters on campus bulletin boards; list of department faculty internship coordinators and liaisons.
    • Integrate classroom learning with practical work experience.
    • Internships enable the University to offer a broader range of learning activities than those available in the classroom.
    • Students return to the classroom with more maturity, new insights and heightened interest in subject matter.
    • Returning interns enhance classroom learning through discussions of their experiences and projects with the professor and other students.
    • Assistance in developing Learning Agreements (with appropriate learning outcomes), Student's Midterm Evaluation of the Internship Experience, Student's Final Evaluation of the Internship Experience, and the Supervisor's Evaluation of the Intern.
    • Assistance developing learning outcomes.
    • Track and report assessment of the learning experience.
    • Random site visits to insure students meet established learning outcomes.
    • Assistance developing and determining credit policies and limits.
    • Data report creation on internship placements.
    • Track and report retention and continuation to graduation for interns.
    • Promote positive and more personal relations with students and employers.
    • Opportunity to network with professionals in the field.
    • Opportunity to keep up with current industrial practice.
    • Opportunity to identify the relevance of curriculum to contemporary needs.
    • Mediate problems between interns and employers.

  • Developing a formalized program

    • Internship Packet for Credit or Not-For Credit “Sample” including syllabus
    • Student and Employer Waiver of Liability
    • Student Waiver of Liability - Service Learning, Volunteering and Student Organizations

  • Direction and Support

    As the internship progresses, the intern is to maintain contact with the faculty Internship Coordinator for ongoing guidance, direction, and support. Expectations for frequency and method (e.g. by email, in person, etc.) should be noted as one of the learning outcomes on the Learning Agreement. The faculty role here is primarily to serve as a sounding board for what the student is experiencing, asking questions that challenge the intern to push themselves in necessary ways. Sometimes the intern will experience problems that represent golden opportunities to stretch and learn, and the faculty's encouragement is important. If the student is not following through on regular communications, the faculty should contact the intern with the firm expectation that they be responsible for this! If problems persist in the internship, the faculty Internship Coordinator and/or the student should contact the Career and Testing Center for assistance in addressing the issues.

  • Recommendation for giving Internship Credit

    • If one of these numbers is not listed for your department, call the Registrar's office to request activation of the number and to request a Course Request Number (CRN).
    • It is up to each faculty internship advisor to make credit determinations based upon academic assignments, applicability of the job to the course of study, and contact hours of work experience. Nationally, a guideline often used is that one internship credit be awarded for every 45-60 contact hours of education related work experience.
    • Some departments have set a maximum amount of credits students can register for in a semester and have determined whether the credits can be pass/no pass or traditional grade. If internship employment dates fall solely within one academic term, the internship credits should be awarded for the academic term that coincides with the dates of actual internship employment.
    • If internship employment dates span more than one academic term, internship credits should be awarded for the academic term in which the majority of actual internship employment hours occur.
    • It is recommended that all academic assignments occur during the term in which academic credit is awarded. If it is impractical for the work experience, academic assignments, and credit to be completed during the same term, academic credit may be awarded during either term at the discretion of the faculty internship advisor.

  • Department of Labor Guidelines for Unpaid Internships as amended in the Fair Labor Standards Act

    Department of Labor Guidelines for Unpaid Internships

  • Evaluating the Experience

    At the end of the internship, the faculty sponsor will award a grade and credit based on how the student demonstrates what has been learned during the experience.

    In assigning a grade, the faculty Internship Coordinator should consider:

    1. 1. Feedback received from the internship site supervisor via mid-term and final evaluations (these are forwarded as they are gathered by the Internship Program)

    2. 2. Ongoing communications with the student during the course of the internship

    3. 3. The content of a site visit report, if one is done (the Internship Director makes about twenty site visits a term)

    4. 4. Learning outcome measures (assignments) as defined in the Learning Agreement or Syllabus . It is suggested that these assignments include reflections on personal, professional, and academic lessons learned by the student over the course of the internship