Internships for Graduate Students

Internships for Graduate Students

As more and more employers are interested in working with students that have advanced skills and are working toward advanced degrees, graduate students should consider for-credit internships to round out their academic, professional, and personal goals. Graduate students may wish to persue an internship to gain valuable on-the-site experience,  increasing their skill-set for a current employer, as an avenue to work with new organizations to support career changes, or to utilize their methodological skills in an internship-based research project with a company, organization, or non-profit that serves their interests. Internship opportunities are experiences in which students can determine if their values and interests will be met in a new working environment and as a complementary piece toward building upon their theoretical and academic training.

 

Details and Requirements

Graduate students in Communication may complete up to six credit hours of internship (COMM 5939) as part of their elective requirements. Graduate students can elect to take from 1-6 credits in the Fall/Spring or 1-3 credits in the Summer. Students who choose to complete multiple internships must work in a different capacity if retaking an internship at the same organization.

A traditional 3-credit internship completes roughly 135 hours at the internship over the semester while also completing academic assignments that require the application of communication theory to the work experience. Each credit hour translates to roughly 45 hours working at the internship.

Internships for graduate students are supervised by the COMM internship director OR a full-time faculty of their choice with relevant expertise. The online COMM 5939: Internships is the corresponding course where students gain academic credit for their reflection work, final paper, and supervisor grade.

Students may choose to create an additional opportunity at their current place of employment for academic credit. If interested in this approach, please discuss with your MA faculty advisor, the COMM internship director, and the COMM internship advisor at the ELC to develop an appropriate internship experience.

Applying, Accepting, & Enrolling

Qualified students can locate internships through our database of record, Handshake, or find any organization or employer that will be willing to mentor you in a supervisory position. If you already have an employer in mind, or have already secured an internship, reach out to the ELC COMM internship advisor to get the process started. If you plan to apply to an internship, please review the steps below:

  1. Make sure you have completed the Internship Workshop at the Experiential Learning Center (ELC)
  2. Set an appointment with the ELC's, COMM internship advisor, Nathan Zackroff to help search for intership opportunities and prepare your materials for applying to several internships
  3. Decide how many hours you can work the internship experience. A traditional Fall/Spring semester for 3 credits has roughly 135 internship hours total. Each credit hour that students enroll in counts as 45 hours working at the internship. Students may enroll in 1-6 credits each semester, but only 3 maximum in the summer. The online course is additional work outside of these hours.
  4. After securing/accepting the internship with an employer supervisor, begin the internship registration process through Handshake. You will complete a Learning Agreement, so make sure you have your supervisor's name, email, and contact information.
  5. After your Learning Agreement is approved, you will receive an email from your internship advisor with instructions on how to enroll in the online for-credit course, COMM 5939, prior to census date

 

Additional Information

For more information, contact the Internship Director for the Communication Department, Lacy Lowrey.  

Lacy Lowrey, COMM Internship Director and Instructor
Department of Communication

Student Commons Building
1201 Larimer Street, Room 3013
lacy.lowrey@ucdenver.edu