Internships provide students with the opportunity to gain direct, practical work experience paired with intentional, academic learning components. This combination provides a rich environment for academic, personal and career-oriented growth and reflection. Through internships, students are encouraged to apply classroom theories to actual work site problems while also gaining valuable professional experience.
Administration
The Director of Career Discovery and Internships is responsible for administering and coordinating the internship program consistent with the policies and guidelines approved by the Hendrix faculty, for keeping records of internship experiences, for doing the necessary publicizing, and for making periodic progress reports to the faculty. Review and evaluation of the program is the responsibility of the Council on Academic Policy.
Eligibility
Internships are available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors in good academic standing. A shorter, more limited form of the internship, shadowing, is available to all students.
Requirements
In order to be considered an “internship” at Hendrix College, the following rules apply:
- A minimum of 120 hours of work over a minimum of 8 weeks with an internship site outside of Hendrix College,
- A maximum of two academic semesters, or one semester and one summer,
- Supervision by a member of the Hendrix Faculty, and
- Participation in the Career Services Internship Seminar.
Professionally-related experiences that do not meet these criteria may still qualify as “professional field experiences” appropriate for Odyssey credit in the PL category. See Odyssey Program Guide.
Internship Proposal Packet
All participating students must fully complete an Internship Proposal Packet (available through Career Counseling) before starting an internship. A complete proposal includes:
- Internship Site Experiential learning Agreement: an agreement entered into by both the student and internship site. Includes project descriptions, responsibilities and objectives for student work and also expectations and outcomes from that work.
- Faculty Internship Sponsor Academic Agreement: an agreement between the student and Hendrix faculty member clearly outlining which type of credit the student is seeking and what academic objectives and requirements the student must fulfill.
- Internship Program Waiver and Release Form
- Student Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct
- Approval of academic advisor and college registrar
Faculty Internship Sponsor
The faculty internship sponsor provides the academic framework for a student’s internship experience by identifying clear learning objectives and determining appropriate academic assignments. The faculty sponsor is responsible for assigning the grade/credit at the completion of the internship. To that end, the Director of Career Discovery and Internships provides each faculty sponsor with information regarding the student’s participation in and completion of the Career Services Internship Seminar class as well as the evaluation by his/her internship site supervisor.
Career Counseling Internship Seminar
During the internship experience, students are required to participate in an internship seminar (total of 10 hours) meant to build upon their work-site experiences and bridge the gap between student and professional. For summer internships the seminar is conducted using the College’s online class platform, Moodle. The seminar includes professional development, career/personal exploration topics and assignments as well as group discussion on the nature and purpose of the student’s internship.
Credit Options
- Academic Course Grade: the internship counts as a class in the student’s schedule and the student receives a letter grade at completion.
- Academic Course Credit (CR) - No Grade: The internship counts as a class in the student’s schedule and the student either receives CR (or not) at completion.
- Odyssey Credit: internships are pre-approved for Odyssey credit in the Professional Leadership Development category. Odyssey Credit can be sought concurrently with the academic course options above.
Students wishing to take an internship for grade or credit as a fifth class must pay the fifth class fee. Only one “academic course grade” or “academic course credit (CR)-no grade” internship experience is allowed to count as a course credit toward graduation unless a second credit comes from an internship required by a comprehensive, study-away program approved by the College.
Summer Internships
Student wishing to enroll for an internship for grade or credit over a summer may do so. For summer internships, the student selects either the spring semester before the experience or the fall semester after the experience to allocate the credit in his/her course load. These are only two options and one must be selected when the student adds the internship with the college registrar. If the spring semester is chosen, students receive an NR grade (No Report) until the internship requirements have been met.
External Internships through Institutional Partners
Hendrix recognizes internships undertaken at institutions with which it has a direct, formal institutional agreement. Such internships are reported through the course transfer process and do not need to be registered through the official College internship process. They are pre-approved for Odyssey PL credit.