Internships For Students

For Parkside students, there are many ways to put learning into action, such as studying abroad, engaging in research, and working in your field of study as part of a class project in a community-based learning class or employment beyond the classroom. Perhaps one of the most powerful opportunities to gain professional experience is an internship.

What Is An Internship?

An internship is a supervised discipline-related work experience that integrates career-relevant learning activities into the university education. An internship should include an experiential learning strategy, an emphasis on professional development, performance assessment, and reflections.

Types of internships
UW-Parkside advocates strongly for paid internships whenever possible, although unpaid internships with nonprofit or government partners may be available. Some internships are completed in one semester and others continue for multiple semesters. Internships are often part-time, around 10-15 hours a week. Some internships, especially those in the summer, are full-time. Consider your other classes and commitments when you decide what type of internship is best for you.

Academic credit for internships
You can choose whether or not to pursue academic credit for your internship. Credit might be applied toward graduation, and in some cases, credit can be applied toward your major.

To earn academic credit, you must enroll in an internship course taught by a faculty member or instructor. Consult the academic catalog for information specific to your program.

Power of internships
According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly all employers said they prefer to hire job candidates who have work experience. Relevant work experience is preferred by over 80 percent of employers. Internships are an opportunity for professional experience while earning your degree.

How Do I Find Internships?

There are a variety of ways that students find internships. Before you do, connect with an advisor to assess what kind of internship is a good fit and how best to prepare for your search. You can also discuss with a faculty member and learn from peers about their experiences and how they connected with them. When you are ready to find an internship, contact Parkside Works: parksideworks@uwp.edu.

Internships on Handshake
Current students can find internships on Handshake. Parkside students have access to a network of thousands of employers and opportunities, including internships. Create your account and get email alerts by major and chosen geographic area.

Handshake

Parker Dewey Micro-internships

Students and recent graduates from all majors can complete short-term, paid, typically-remote, professional projects that allow you to build and demonstrate skills while exploring potential career paths.

These Micro-Internships can take place at any time of year, and are used by companies across the United States, ranging from those in the Fortune 100 to emerging start-ups.

Micro-Internships are facilitated via the Parker Dewey platform, which connects students and recent graduates with organizations in need of support.

Parker Dewey

Student Internship Stories

Internships are a great opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills to experiences outside of the classroom while contributing to community organizations and companies. Every year, hundreds of Parkside students engage in internships and we are excited to hear and share the stories of how they’ve put their learning in action!

CBE Stories: About Students, Faculty, and Partners

Share Your Learning in Action Story
Have you had or are you currently engaging in an experience that you’d like featured on the CBE Stories page? Fill out the survey to share a testimonial about your internship, and we may feature you in upcoming Learning in Action promotion.

Share Your Story

Internship Resources for Employers and Instructors

Have an internship you’d like to let the UW-Parkside students know about? Please use Handshake to advertise jobs, internships, and volunteer positions.

Handshake for Employers

Employer Internship Information

Employer Resources

Internships are a supervised, discipline-related work experience that integrate career relevant learning activities into a university education. An internship should include an experiential learning strategy, an emphasis on professional development, performance assessments, and reflections.

The Alan E. Guskin Center for Community and Business Engagement can help you:

Provide templates of assignments, assessments, contracts, etc.
Identify resources on best practices for internships
Develop an engaging internship course for any instructional delivery method
Connect with community partners who are seeking student interns
Connect you with other faculty on campus who are experienced in internships, including those on the Internship Steering Committee

If you are interested in learning more about internships, contact the Community and Business Engagement office at cbe@uwp.edu.

Resources

Internship Instructors Canvas Course

This Canvas course contains template assignments, syllabi, rubrics, and more to help internship instructors construct a robust internship course within their own discipline. In this course, you will also find Safety & Empowerment for Experiential Learning, an asynchronous module that can be imported to your intership course to provide students with foundational knowledge about professional behavior and appropriate boundaries in experiential learning.

UW-Parkside Definition of Internships and Learning Goals

On April 3, 2019, the UW-Parkside Faculty Senate approved this definition of internships, along with the related learning goals.

Internship Assessment Rubric

This rubric is intended to be used in an internship Canvas course to support assessment of the institution’s internship program.

Guskin Center Reflection Guide

Use this guide to develop meaningful reflection prompts.

Society for Experiential Education Standards and Practice

Founded in 1971, the Society for Experiential Education (SEE) is the premier, nonprofit membership organization composed of a global community of researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders who are committed to the establishment of effective methods of experiential education as fundamental to the development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that empower learners and promote the common good. SEE sustains a great variety of experiential learning opportunities, such as internships, micro-experiences, service learning, global experience, and more.