Overview: If you are majoring in advertising and public relations (ADPR), communication and media studies (CMS/CMC), communication and speech studies (CSS), or journalism (JOU), you can take an internship for credit by registering for COM 354: Internship in Communication. This guide explains the process and constitutes the syllabus and policies for the COM 354 course.
Credits and Requirements: To complete an internship for credit, you must have junior or senior standing (at least 60 hours completed at the time of registration) and a minimum 3.0 GPA. You must work 40 hours per academic credit hour. Over the course of a 14-week semester, this works out to approximately one credit = three hrs/week, two credits = six hrs/week, three credits = nine hrs/week, and four credits = 12 hrs/week. For a seven-week term, those hours would be doubled (one credit = six hrs/week, etc). Please note that these are minimum hourly requirements. For instance, you may opt to register for two credits even if you plan to work more than six hours per week during a 14-week semester.
Terms and Registration Deadlines: You can take COM 354 during the school year as either a 14-week, first seven weeks, or second seven weeks class during the fall and spring semesters. You can also take COM 354 over the summer for the full 12-week term or just the first or second six weeks. The registration deadlines vary. For fall, spring, and summer (12 weeks), you must register within the first three weeks of the semester. For first and second seven weeks, registration takes place during the first week of the term. And, for summer first and second six weeks, you must register within the first three days of the term. Once you submit your Internship Agreement Form by following the process laid out below, the registration process typically takes two to three days. But please be aware that it is your responsibility to confirm that the internship actually shows up on your schedule; if you don’t see COM 354, you will not get credit for it. Also, note that you will be charged summer tuition rates for internships taken over the summer and that retroactive credit is not possible.
Major Restrictions: COM 354 cannot be used to fulfill any 300-or-above level requirements (regardless of what it might say in your catalog). Majors in advertising and public relations (ADPR general and public relations concentrations), communication and media studies (CMS/CMC), communication and speech studies (CSS), and journalism (JOU), can count up to four credit hours of COM 354 towards their major and any additional internship credits toward general electives. ADPR creative concentration majors can only count COM 354 towards general education electives. JOU majors can take COM 354 for a maximum of eight credit hours, four of which may count toward their major. CSS majors should see their program director for approval.
Grading and Assignments: Remember that taking an internship for credit is like taking a class. The only difference is that most of the work takes place off-campus, and the grading is pass/fail ("satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory"). In other words, yes, you can fail an internship. Your grade will be based on: 1) orientation (10%): 2) your attendance at (and one-page reflection about) a Career Services event, appointment, or drop-in (10%); 3) your midterm report (20%); 4) your final report (30%); and 5) your internship host site supervisor’s evaluation (30%). Both reports should include a title page with your name, academic semester, and the name and address of the company, along with the name and contact information of your host site manager. The report should be typed, double-spaced, numbered, and have been carefully edited for spelling, grammar, syntax, etc. Submit all of your own reports through the course Blackboard site. For your site supervisor's evaluation, you will send them the six questions specified below and instruct them to email their answers directly to Christopher Boulton at cboulton@ut.edu. Final percentages of 60% or higher earn a "satisfactory" grade while final percentages of 59% or lower earn an "unsatisfactory" grade. If I do not receive either your final report or your site supervisor’s evaluation by the last day of classes of your internship's term, you will automatically receive a grade of "unsatisfactory." Should you wish to request an extension or "incomplete," it is up to you to propose an alternative arrangement before the last day or your internship's term.
Fair Labor Standards for Unpaid Internships: Like an apprenticeship, an unpaid internship should be an educational experience that benefits you more than the host site. This is why the United States Department of Labor requires host sites to assign unpaid interns a range of interesting and challenging tasks, teach them transferable skills that can be applied in other contexts, and provide them with oversight and feedback based on helping students to establish and achieve their learning objectives. If this is not taking place at your internship, please contact Christopher Boulton, the faculty internship coordinator for the Department of Communication. Your host site may need to either pay you for your work or increase the educational value of the experience.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOUR INTERNSHIP:
Find an Internship: To find an internship, start by reading over Career Services' very helpful Student Internship Guide. Then, if you haven't already, set up an account in Handshake and search for available internships related to your major. You can also peruse the list of over 100 local internship sites that have hosted UT students or use your personal/professional network of contacts to approach a potential internship site on your own. When applying, do your best to customize both your cover letter and CV to emphasize which aspects of your own experience, talents and goals align with the specific duties of the internship. Once you are hired for an internship, proceed to the next step.
Request Academic Credit: Sign in to your Handshake account. Go to the “Career Center” tab on the top right of your profile, use the drop-down menu to select “Experiences,” then “Request an Experience” and fill out “Details” of your internship making sure to select “Communication Internships” for your course. Finally, click “Submit Experience.” You will receive an email when your request for internship credit has been approved.
International students: Be sure to visit the International Programs Office to learn more about Curricular Practical Training (CPT). CPT is required for all internship experiences (paid and unpaid). Visit the International Programs Office CPT website for additional information or contact them at (813) 258-7433.
Communication Internship Intake Form: This form on Handshake will help keep everyone (including you, me, and your internship site supervisor) on the same page about the educational aspects (such as learning objectives and evaluation methods) of your internship. If the internship host site has any questions about this, please refer them to Career Services' Employer Internship Guide.
UT Internship Agreement: Once you have been hired for the internship and it has been approved for credit, the Career Services Office will send you an Internship Agreement form. First, download and save the file to your own computer by using your last name (ie: BOULTON.pdf). Then enter all your information into the empty cells of the PDF (note: Course Prefix and Number is COM 354). Please note that whatever you write down as your “Internship Title” is what will appear on your college transcript. I also recommend including the name of your internship host site. Once the form is complete, save it again and email the PDF file to cboulton@ut.edu, so I can sign in the instructor box and on the approval line and send it along to the Registrar for processing. Your internship should then show up as part of your class schedule on Workday within a few days, so be sure to check that it does. Note: You must have space in your schedule in order for the registration to go through. If you already have 16 credits, you might consider a two-credit internship so you don't have to petition for an overload (more than 18 credits).
WHAT TO DO DURING YOUR INTERNSHIP:
Get Started: As part of this course, you will need to attend one orientation session either in-person or virtually. I will offer multiple sessions and will post the times and sign-up lists on Blackboard. On the first day of your internship, find out who will be supervising or managing you, then request a time to sit down with them to establish your weekly work schedule and a set of specific learning objectives that you hope to accomplish over the course of the internship. Finally, do your best to set up a reliable mechanism of evaluation, preferably in the form of regular feedback from your internship site supervisor. This is important because in order to accomplish your learning objectives you will need a continuing process of on-site evaluation. I would also strongly recommend that you keep an ongoing journal throughout your internship, so you will have plenty of material at-the-ready when it comes time to write your midterm and final reports.
Be Professional: An internship is an exercise in pre-professional training. Therefore, you should plan to always be on time and strive to be a reliable, dedicated, and ethical colleague. Maintain a positive attitude and willingness to learn while completing all of your tasks and responsibilities to the best of your ability. Remember, you are not just representing yourself; you are also representing UT. Of course, it is also incumbent on your internship host site to provide a safe, professional, and ethical environment for you and your work. In any case, if any problems arise, please contact me right away. I am on your side and will work to help you resolve any issues or, should the need arise, reassign you to a more healthy and productive work environment.
Midterm Report: Halfway through your internship you will need to submit on Blackboard a one to two page midterm report of your internship experience thus far. This report should provide specific examples and address the following five areas:
- the company’s founding, mission statement, product, clients/customers, and number of employees and departments;
- your internship duties/responsibilities, the kinds of projects you are working on and people you are working with;
- any skills or insights gained relevant to your learning objectives and major and/or career goals;
- problems or challenges you’ve had and what you’ve done to solve them; and
- the amount and quality of supervision, feedback and evaluation you are getting from your site supervisor.
Career Services: At least two weeks before the end of your internship, you must attend either a Career Services event of your choice, appointment, or drop-in session. For example, should you choose to schedule an appointment or drop-in, you could request whichever of the following topics is most relevant to your individual needs: resume/cover letter, career exploration, internships, job search strategies, leveraging LinkedIn, or interviewing assistance. To complete this assignment, turn in a one to two page, double-spaced reflection paper on Blackboard that summarizes the information gleaned from the Career Services event, appointment or drop-in session and describes, in detail, what future steps you plan to take based on what you learned.
Final Report: At the end of your internship or during the last week of the term (whichever comes first), you will need to write up and submit on Blackboard a two to three page reflection on your experience that provides an overall evaluation of your host site as well as a demonstration of what you learned using specific examples. In your remarks, be sure to answer the following 10 questions:
- What were your major accomplishments in terms of projects completed and/or goals reached?
- Which of your learning objectives did you achieve and how?
- What were the biggest challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
- Which aspects of your academic preparation (particular classes, professors, student organizations, etc.) were most helpful during your internship?
- How might the Department of Communication better prepare students to be successful interns?
- What did your host site teach you (equipment/software, teamwork, specialized vocabulary, etc.) that you didn’t already know?
- What are the most valuable lessons that you will take away from this internship?
- How has this internship helped prepare you to enter the work world?
- Would you recommend your internship site to other UT students? Why or why not?
- Do you think this particular internship or UT’s Department of Communication Internship Program in general could be improved for next time? If so, what changes would you recommend?
Site Supervisor Evaluation: Towards the end of your internship, you will need to send your internship site supervisor the six questions listed below. Be sure they answer all the questions and email those answers to cboulton@ut.edu before the last day of your internship's term so you can earn academic credit for your internship experience.
- How many total hours did the intern work?
- What were the intern’s major accomplishments in terms of projects completed and/or goals reached?
- Which of their learning objectives were achieved and how?
- What were the biggest challenges the intern faced, and how did the intern overcome them?
- What did you teach the intern (equipment/software, teamwork, specialized vocabulary, etc.) that intern didn't already know?
- How might The University of Tampa better prepare our students to be successful interns?
Other course policies: Please note that UT’s campus-wide policy statements also apply to this course.