Internships

Requirements:

Some internships will mandate that students have certain courses (from Communication Studies as well as the English or Art Department) completed beforehand. The course requires that students must work at least 200 hours at their internship site, meet regularly with both their workplace and faculty advisor to discuss issues relating to their internships and submit a log of their activities, a portfolio of their work (i.e., documents, news articles, videos), and do a paper and give a presentation on their internship experience.

Evaluation:

Students receive four credit hours for successfully completing their internship. Their final grade is based on the their faculty advisor's assessment of their log, portfolio, paper, and presentation as well as a letter of evaluation from the internship site advisor.

When to Apply:

Students need to contact any member of the Communication Studies Department early in the term preceding their enrollment in Com 83.

Availability:

Spring and Summer Terms

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Independent Study:

Students interested in doing an independent study with a faculty member of the Communication Studies Department must follow the guidelines below. Independent Studies will not be conducted for subjects that will be taught in the curriculum by this department or others, regardless of whether or not the student will graduate before the course is offered again. Independent studies will be granted on a more favorable basis to students considering graduate school in communication studies. Only on extremely rare cases, will the department even consider allowing an independent study proposed on the first day of classes in a term if the reason given is that the student lacks a sufficient number of courses in the term.

Subjects for study should be those that allow the student to conduct an advanced study of a subject the student has already been introduced to in a class taught by the proposed faculty member directing the independent study or in a subject not taught regularly in the department but in which the proposed faculty member has interest and expertise in.

Students wishing to do an internship outside our the local vicinity during the regular school year should follow the same procedure and also include the internship application form and additional material required when applying for Com 83 in the spring and summer terms. Students wishing to do an internship during the fall, spring, and summer in the local area need to apply with the English Department (fall) or Communication Studies Department (spring, summer). No local internships will be offered in the winter term.

1. The student and proposed faculty director should begin discussing the subject of the independent study no later than the registration period of each term.

2. After getting tentative approval by the faculty director on the nature and procedures for the course (subject, areas, meeting times, assignments, grading procedure, etc.), students will need to write a 1-2 page explanation and justification of the independent study, including all of the issues aforementioned. Students also need to prepare a bibliography of five to ten written sources that will be the basis of the study.

3. The student needs to submit the proposal to the faculty director no later than two weeks prior to the last day of classes in the preceding term. The faculty member can ask for any necessary revisions and then ask the student to return four copies of the course proposal to the faculty director.

4. The faculty director should then distribute the proposal to each department faculty member. The department will then discuss the merits of the independent study at their next departmental meeting, conducted during the last week of classes. Ideally, the majority of the department should endorse the independent study. However, ultimate approval lies with the chair who is responsible to the Dean for the department's offerings.

The study director will notify the student as to whether or not the independent study has been accepted. The student can then ask the department chair, on the first day of class in the term, to sign a drop-add or overload form that will sign him or her up for the course.

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Scholarships:

There are many scolarshipships available to students who plan to pursue a career in the field of Communication:

Odell Scholarship:

These scholarships are awarded on a competitive basis to upperclassmen based on the criteria below:

1. Have a declared major in the division of Humanities: English, Classics, Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Philosophy, Religion, Communications, Asian Studies

2. Academic Performance

3. Demonstration of financial need (FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, must be filed with the financial aid office)

4. Completion of an Odell Scholarship Application by April 15 (return application to the Office of Financial Aid). Students must reapply each year.

5. Attach an academic transcript from the registrar's office.

L.D. Johnson Scholarship:

More information to come . . .

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