Internship Frequently Asked Questions

All students begin by requesting approval from their major/minor department to pursue an internship. Get started by having a conversation with your department internship coordinator about how internship credits will fit into your academic program. 

When you are ready to start the process, log into Handshake with your Millersville credentials and select Career Center - Experiences - Submit an Experience - Step 1: Major/Minor Department Approval of Request.  All of the steps are outlined on the Request and Report/Registration Process webpage.

Practical, applied experience is a wonderful teacher. Through an internship, you learn by doing.  A credit-bearing internship enhances your classroom education and prepares you to step into the professional world.  Millersville University considers the internship a course like any other. Therefore, you are required to pay tuition for enrolled credits.  At the university level, significant resources are devoted to credit-bearing internships. The Career Center, the department internship coordinators, faculty supervisors and other University personnel are involved in student, credit-bearing internships from beginning to end. The Career Center and the department internship coordinators advise students, evaluate internships, develop internship opportunities and information, review internship agreements, check pre-requisites and register students for the course. In addition, The Career Center and the coordinators maintain contact with students and supervisors through email, telephone, written reports and evaluations. When the semester comes to a close, The Career Center and the coordinators review all materials submitted by students and supervisors, conduct meetings as needed and assign grades.  Each semester, students confirm their credit-bearing internship was an essential part of their education.

That depends on the student.  The Career Center provides various sources of information and assistance (and we strive to make the credit-bearing internship program stronger through your suggestions).  The credit-bearing internship program is designed so students develop job seeking experience preparing them for the job search process upon graduation.  ELCM is here to help.  Some students are independent, organized and focused.  They know where they want to intern and what they want to do.  As long as the internship applies within the major or minor requirements, it will be approved by the department. On the other hand, some students require more coaching and consultation. In those situations, The Career Center staff spends time with students discussing career options, internship opportunities, resume building, interviewing skills, etc. It is up to the individual student to make their needs known. Please don’t hesitate to ask for help.

If you find an internship on your own or have a current job that you think qualifies as academically-related to your major, it can be considered for an internship.  Ideally, your work experience you would like to qualify as a credit-bearing internship should be something that you do not already know how to do. The internship hours are best spent learning new skills and experiences, with the internship hours spent on tasks not normally a part of the intern's routine work responsibilities.  The purpose of a credit-bearing internship is to acquire new knowledge, learn how to perform new tasks, undergo personal growth and make strides in one's professional development. 

Log into Handshake with your Millersville credentials and select Career Center - Experiences - Submit an Experience - Step 1: Major/Minor Department Approval of Request and Step 2: Report/Registration of Internship.

No.  Faculty supervision is required during the internship, so credits cannot be awarded after you have already completed the internship hours.

Yes. The minimum credits required for an academic internship is one credit and requires 40 hours per credit.  You should meet with your department's internship coordinator or your advisor to discuss your options.

Although most internships receive three credits, including most full-time, summer internships, the department internship coordinator will make the final decision on the number of credits a student will receive for their internship.  If there is a particular component of the internship that is extraordinary, additional credits may sometimes be awarded, but it is the exception, not the rule.

You can do an internship at the same place for more than one semester, but you need to provide a new job description showing that you are accepting more responsibility for the second internship.  You will receive credit for a 400-level course for your second internship, and 500-level credit for a third and subsequent internships.

Make sure you have submitted a completed Handshake Experiences Step 1: Major/Minor Department Approval of Request to confirm that your department has approved your eligibility to pursue an internship. We invite you to schedule an appointment with a staff member via Handshake to review these jobs.  A staff member will work with you to confirm positions are aligned with your major/minor and we can assist you with any other requirements to apply for the position, such as writing samples, application, references, etc.

 

If you completed Step 2: Report/Registration of Internship over two (2) weeks ago and it is still not showing on your degree audit, don't worry, but DO call us at The Career Center 717-871-7655 or email us at careers@millersville.edu. Do NOT wait until the semester is over and/or grades have been assigned to find out that your internship is not on your schedule. The issue can be difficult to resolve after such an extended period of time.

 

Credit-bearing internships must be registered by the end of the drop/add period during the fall and spring semesters and three weeks after the end of the spring semester for summer credit-bearing internships (usually June 1). Summer credit-bearing internships are registered for summer 1 session and the internships run approximately 12-15 weeks so all summer internships must be registered during this deadline.  Summer internships are not like summer classes where you only participate in the summer internship for five weeks.  We encourage internships to take place over a duration of 12 to 15 weeks).  Students completing a 3 credits internship for 120 hours, should work approximately 10 hours per week; for a minimum of 120 hours to earn academic credits for the experience (note: minimum hour requirements DO vary by departments).  It is not recommended to complete a credit-bearing internship in less time even if you are working full-time for 4 weeks and would complete 120 hours.  It is challenging to establish professional contacts within the organization and network with others in the industry, receive adequate on-the-job training and experience in the industry firsthand and garner a sense of the organizational structure and inter-workings of a business within a month’s worth of work.

 

We recommend keeping a record or log of how you connected with your internship faculty supervisor e.g. email, phone, face-to-face appointment, internship site visit.  Note the date and time when you met or contacted them by phone.  Save the emails.  You do not need to provide them to the Career Center, they are for your record keeping.  These communications are factored into the grading of your internship so write them in a professional manner, with meaningful reflection. 

Some examples of your communications should address your learning objectives and learning goals, tasks completed and progress reports.  Maybe consider discussing any decisions you are making regarding your career field; do you see yourself in this career-why or why not? What impact are you making as an intern at the organization so far?  Your internship faculty supervisor is your academic mentor and supervisor.  Engage with them to successfully complete your credit-bearing internship.

Yes, it could, so if you are having trouble connecting with your faculty supervisor, contact The Career Center for assistance.  We are here to facilitate your academic internship and want you to have a successful experience.  Again, don't wait until the end of the semester to resolve the problem.  It will be too late by then.  Contact us as soon as possible at 717-871-7655 or careers@millersville.edu

The employer expects you to complete the necessary hours required for the credit-bearing internship.  They may require you to punch a time clock like their employees or maintain a log or time sheet of hours completed.  Your internship faculty supervisor also expects you to complete the necessary hours required for the academic internship.  The faculty supervisor may require a log or time sheet of your hours completed.

If the faculty supervisor assigns something different other than the outcomes paper, The Career Center will accept that assignment in place of an outcomes paper.  If the faculty supervisor doesn't assign anything different, all students are required to turn in an outcomes paper.  Please upload your outcomes paper to Handshake under your Step 2:  Report/Registration request for the faculty supervisor and The Career Center to review the end of the internship.  The department may also decide to assign work in addition to the outcomes paper.  For example, if you are required to keep a weekly journal in addition to the outcomes paper, you have to complete both.

Yes, if you follow our outcomes paper guidelines, you should be able to write an eight page paper. As long as you answer the questions clearly and with reflection, the length of your outcome paper will not be a problem.  We do not count words or measure margins, and you do not have to change your font size to take up more room.

The outcomes paper is due by Monday before finals week (14^th week of the fall/spring semester) OR if your faculty supervisor requests it earlier or grants an extension, then you would go by their deadline.  Please upload your outcomes paper to Handshake under your Step 2:  Report/Registration request for your faculty supervisor and The Career Center to review.

All students should be sure to complete the student evaluation that will be sent directly from Handshake approximately six weeks before the end of the semester.