Internship Guidelines

Before the Internship

1. Students are responsible for finding their own internship as part of learning job search skills.
2. Students can look for internships by reviewing the postings on the virtual bulletin board, and they can explore other internship opportunities independently.
3. Internships may be paid or unpaid.
4. A student may be currently employed in a position that may also qualify for internship credits.
5. The University does not provide internship credit for past work experience. The faculty internship advisor must approve all internships before enrolling.
6. Students may only apply a maximum of 12 internship credits towards their total college credits.
7. The internship course is not currently offered in summer but can do a summer internship to receive credit in fall. However, you must enroll in the no-credit/no-cost summer course UNIV 421-81. This protects your health and safety at the internship site. No summer hours can be counted for a fall internship without this summer course. Contact your faculty internship advisor about this requirement.

Internship Criteria

To receive university credit, all internship placements must be pre-approved by your faculty internship advisor.

1. The internship job assignment must be related to the student’s course of study and provide job skills relevant to the major.
2. The internship opportunity must be open to all ANG or SOC majors; that is, the agency, business, or other organization must have inclusive, non-discriminatory hiring practices.
3. Students may work for faith-based organizations if the focus of their activity is secular, service-oriented, and does not involve proselytizing.

Required at the Beginning of the Internship

1. Complete an Internship Contract: Sociology or Anthropology/Geography
2. E-mail from Job Supervisor:
   The Job Supervisor must send an email to the faculty internship advisor to verify your internship placement with the business, agency, or organization. The email should describe the work to be done, the number of hours per week, and the number of weeks to be worked. The advisor for Anthropology and Geography is Dr. Jim Keese (jkeese@calpoly.edu), and for Sociology is Dr. Kylie Parrotta (parrotta@calpoly.edu).
3. Permission Number: ​​Once the faculty internship advisor for your major receives the contract and the job supervisor's email, they will provide you with a permission number for you to register.

During the Internship

The student and the job supervisor should keep track of the duties performed and the number of hours completed, as the number of hours determines how many units you will receive.

Required upon completion of the Internship

To receive credit, the following documents must be completed:

1. STUDENT REPORT/REFLECTION FORM: A link will be sent to you by your faculty internship advisor. 
2. INTERNSHIP JOB SUPERVISOR EVALUATION FORM: A link will be sent to your employer by the faculty internship advisor.

Important! These documents must be turned in by finals week in order to receive credit.

SUMMARY

 All 4 documents are required in order to receive a grade:

1. INTERNSHIP CONTRACT submitted by student before the quarter of internship
2. JOB SUPERVISOR EMAIL submitted by employer before the quarter of internship
3. INTERNSHIP JOB SUPERVISOR EVALUATION FORM submitted by the job supervisor by finals week
4. STUDENT REPORT/REFLECTION FORM submitted by student by finals week