Guideline for Internships
See Also: Internship Application Form
- Students seeking academic credit for internships sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy must comply with the following guidelines.
- Application for an internship in which academic credit is requested must be submitted at least fifteen days prior to the beginning of the internship. Application forms are available at the Political Science office in 1001 McClung Tower . The applications are submitted to:
Dr. Michael R. Fitzgerald , Internship Coordinator
Department of Political Science
1001 McClung Tower
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-0410
Telephone: (865) 974-7049
E-mail: mfitzge1@utk.edu
- The application for internship credit must include a copy of your Academic History and a letter from the office in which the internship is to be located. The letter should be on organization stationary. It must include the name of the person or persons who will be the on-site supervisor(s) of the intern, a description of the proposed duties of the intern, and an estimate of the number of hours per week to be worked.
- Once the application has been received, students will then schedule a personal interview with Dr. Fitzgerald, the Internship Coordinator. Students will be informed via e-mail as to the disposition of their application for internship credit.
- If the application is approved, students are required to attend an Internship Workshop, undertake specific reading, maintain a journal, and submit a paper related to their internship. Depending on the nature of the specific internship additional requirements for its satisfactory completion may be imposed by the Internship Coordinator. Unless specifically exempted, interns will be required to meet periodically during the semester with the Internship Coordinator to review their progress.
- Credit for the internship is awarded under the course Political Science 494 Internship (1-6). This course is repeatable up to a maximum of 6 hours of credit. Grades are assigned on Satisfactory/No Credit (S/NC) basis only. Hours earned under Political Science 494 may not be applied toward the political science major. Registration in Political science 494 can only occur after departmental approval and by processing an ADD slip.
- The department ordinarily will not authorize academic credit for students who have taken little or no coursework in political science. Non-majors with little political science coursework should seek internship credit through their own department or college.
- No retroactive academic credit may be awarded for internships which have been undertaken and completed prior to the filing and approval of an internship application.
- Application for an internship in which academic credit is requested must be submitted at least fifteen days prior to the beginning of the internship. Application forms are available at the Political Science office in 1001 McClung Tower . The applications are submitted to:
- Students whose overall grade point average (GPA) is lower than 2.5 are not encouraged to apply for internships.
- All applications for 494 Internship credit must be approved by the Head of the Political Science Department upon the recommendation of the Internship Coordinator.