Internships
Through internships, Elizabethtown College offers students the opportunity to apply and augment their classroom learning with real-world experience. Internships can assist students with deepening and sharpening their personal learning and career goals. They provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge in work and practice settings, gaining confidence and skill as they integrate the abstract/theoretical with the practical and applied.Guidelines
Internships will be registered in the department of the supervising faculty member.
Internships will normally be graded Pass/No Pass. Departmental exceptions must be approved by Academic Council and be noted in the Catalog as letter-graded experiences.
Students enrolling in internships must have minimum cumulative and major grade point averages of 2.00. If a department sets a higher grade point average standard, and if the internship is required for graduation, the higher standard must be approved by Academic Council.
Internships must be registered during the semester in which the work is completed. In the case where internship hours clearly overlap two terms (e.g., begins in April and ends in June), the registration of the internship can be split (e.g., two credits registered in the spring term and two credits registered in the summer term for an internship experience that is four total credits). Summer internships cannot be registered during spring or fall semesters.
An internship can be taken for up to 12 credits. To be awarded academic credit, students must work a minimum of 40 hours over the course of the term in which the internship is registered for each credit awarded. This is a minimum expectation; some departments or internship sites may have higher work expectations. At least two-thirds of these hours should be spent at the internship site, with the remaining one-third spent on related activities.
Each department will establish its own criteria for related activities and expectations for awarding academic credit to internships, including whether students can engage in multiple internships over the course of their college career and the maximum number of credits that students in their programs can accrue through internships.
To prevent potential conflicts of interest, students must disclose any familial relationships with employees or owners of the organization at which they want to intern. Students may not intern at a company owned or managed, fully or in part, by a family member, nor may the on-site supervisor be a member of the student’s family or anyone working under supervision of a family member. In addition, continuation of a part-time or summer job may not serve as an internship. Any exceptions to these prohibitions would be unusual and require the approval by the Associate Academic Dean.
All internships must have a faculty supervisor and an on-site supervisor. The intern must have regular contact with the on-site supervisor during the term of the internship. At the end of the internship, the on-site supervisor will be asked to submit a written evaluation to the faculty supervisor, describing the work and responsibilities of the intern, and providing an evaluation of the intern’s level of performance and progress during the internship.
Internships must be registered no later than the third Friday of the regular fall or spring term. This additional registration time is provided to enable students to collect their on-site supervisor’s signature on the Internship Contract form. For summer internships, registration must be by the end of the first week of the internship.
The Internship Contract or syllabus must specify the goals and objectives of the internship, the activities necessary to reach those goals, and the methods by which the student will be evaluated. An Internship Contract must be signed by the student, the on-site supervisor and the faculty supervisor.
Consult the appropriate academic department for more detail on its internship policy.
Affiliated Institution Programs
In Affiliated Institution Programs, students study at Elizabethtown College and at affiliated academic institutions or clinical facilities in the United States. The following programs are offered in conjunction with other academic institutions:
Forestry with Duke University. See the Interdisciplinary Programs chapter of this Catalog.
Pre-engineering with The Pennsylvania State University. See the description in the Department of Physics and Engineering listing in the Programs and Courses chapter of this Catalog.
Biology health professions and pre-allied health with Thomas Jefferson University. See the Interdisciplinary Programs chapter of this Catalog.
Invasive cardiovascular technology with the Lancaster Institute for Health Education. See the description in the Department of Biology listing in the Programs and Courses chapter of this Catalog.
Washington Semester and World Capitals Program with American University. The Washington Semester provides an opportunity to study in Washington, D.C., and take advantage of the resources of the nation’s capital. Students in the program work with the policymakers and business professionals who play a vital role in American government and culture. Full semester credit is earned by studying in one of 10 areas: American politics, international politics, peace and conflict resolution, economic policy, journalism, justice, international business and trade, international environment/development, public law, and transforming communities. All programs include internships, and several involve three weeks of study abroad. Students interested in the program should contact Dr. Fletcher McClellan in the Department of Political Science. Students participating in the program must acquire off-campus course approvals from the Office of Registration and Records.
The College also offers a number of majors in which work at affiliated clinical facilities constitutes an important part of the student’s education. In music therapy, occupational therapy, social work and clinical laboratory sciences, students combine work at the College with first-hand experience in hospitals, clinics, and social work and therapy programs. For detailed descriptions, see the listings in the Programs and Courses chapter of this Catalog.
