MARIST COLLEGE – COMMUNICATION & MEDIA STUDIES INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
COPYRIGHT - 2013
A Parent’s Guide to
INTERNSHIPS
What is an internship?
People use the term “internship” to mean many things. More than half of today’s college students take part in
internships. Therefore, understanding exactly what internships are can be beneficial, both now and in the future.
Further, parents and guardians need to be able to support their children and that means they need to understand that
internships exist under specific legal guidelines that were created to protect the rights of students, employees and
also employers and educational institutions. National education and employer associations have worked for years to
develop guidelines designed to help create internship programs that create a positive and mutually beneficial
experience for all involved. Responsible colleges – like Marist – do internships the right way. We focus on the
quality of the internship experience, identifying employer-sponsors who will serve as partners in education. The
best internships are those that give students an opportunity to see first-hand what a profession is like, to engage the
professionals in that field. But these gains are tempered by legal restrictions designed to protect your son and
daughter from being exploited, and also designed to protect other workers as well. It’s a complicated picture.
Gaining an overview of how internships are designed to work will help you.
Let begin by looking at some definitions:
Defining ‘internships’
Internships are a type of work experience for college students or other entry-level workers that involve work in the
intern’s prospective career field. The main purpose is to gain practical “real world” experience and make key
contacts in a particular area. An internship may be paid or unpaid and may be performed “for college credit” or
simply “for career experience.” Educators call this “experiential learning.” To be effective, educators say
experiential learning requires the student intern to engage fully by integrating the “concrete experience” of the
workplace with “reflective analysis” which then leads successful students to “abstract conceptualization” about the
work experience, which in turn leads to experimentation and new learning. This is known as Kolb’s Learning
Cycle (see Table 1)
Educators use many tools to supplement the learning that takes place in internships. Written assignments, such as
weekly journals and reflection/analysis papers, are the most common means by which students analyze and
measure their experiences. Students may also engage in seminars, group discussions, in which they share their
personal experiences and try to make sense of what they have learned in the workplace. It is precisely this process
of “making sense” of work experiences that results in learning. This is what makes the internship unique
Marist College – Communication & Media Studies Internship Program
Focus On Learning
A
college internship is intended to be linked to a course of study, or curriculum. Therefore, teachers monitor the
internship experience – and often, but not always – award college credit for an internship. Teachers rely on
various tools to assess learning, comprehension and personal development. There are a number of educational goals
in an internship, among them:
1) learning or improving key skills
2) enhancing knowledge of the field
3) making career contacts
4) broadening emotional maturity
The Kolb Learning Cycle
The emphasis in any internship should always be on the
learning. As much as we want our sons and daughters to have
positive professional opportunities, it is wise to remember that
they are still students, beginners, and that they benefit most
from an open-ended experience that balances the needs of a
student with the experiences and demands of the workplace.
Most educators will take the position that the best emphasis is
one that stresses the “student” in the phrase student intern.
The internship exposes the student to many new faces and new challenges, to work-related deadlines and
professional quality control pressures. Along with the exploration of new skills comes an important transition from
the subjective to the objective. For many students, their achievements have for years been expressed through grades.
They have achieved as individuals. But when they go to an internship they are often exposed to the importance of
teamwork. They see that, often, the achievement of the individual doesn’t count for as much as the work of a group
or team. Learning to think more broadly (how can WE get this job done?) can be a challenge as it requires setting
aside personal needs and interests. Since internship sponsors are typically employers, internships are among the
best routes to launching a career in professional media. But it is the combination of work experience and
reflection/analysis that makes the internship unique. As described in Kolb’s Learning Cycle (above), your son or
daughter will undergo a series of experiences, process those through reflection and writing/discussion assignments,
measure the value of those experiences and use that information to improve. This is a proactive process that is
guided by educators.
Intern - Employee - Volunteer
Now, let’s make another important distinction – the difference between being an Employee, a student Intern and a
Volunteer. This is a matter of law, so we should be precise. Let’s begin with some definitions:
Employee – a person who is paid to perform work that is of benefit to the employer.
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Marist College – Communication & Media Studies Internship Program
Intern – a person who performs or observes a very limited amount of work, specifically in an educational/trainee
context.
Volunteer – a person who offers his or her services to a charity or other not-for-profit entity for no pay.
Employers and educators have developed a number of structures that allow students to “test drive” their career
choices. The differing approaches have been created for a variety of purposes and academic majors. Here is an
abbreviated look at the different types of experiential learning models and their frameworks.
Types of Field Experience/Experiential Learning
Title
Internship
Cooperative
Education
(Co-ops)
Practicum
Externships
or
Job Shadowing
Description
Usually this is a one-time field experience lasting the
length of a semester that is related to a student’s academic
major or career goal. It usually involves working in a
professional setting under the supervision and monitoring
of practicing professionals. The goals include gaining or
enhancing specific skills, making career contacts and
enhancing knowledge of a career field. It is common in
the Humanities.
Cooperative education provides students with alternating
periods of work in which the work is related to the
student's major or career goal. The typical program calls
for a student to alternate terms of full-time classroom
study with terms of full-time, discipline-related
employment to build professional expertise. Such
programs are often operated under very tight partnerships
between an employer and a college. These positions are
paid because the student is technically an employee. Coops are common in fields such as engineering.
A practicum is generally a one-time work or service
experience performed by a student as part of an academic
class. Practicums are rarely paid positions. Almost all are
done for academic credit.
Credits Salary
Yes/No Yes/N
o
An externship or job shadowing experience gives the
student the opportunity to spend as little as one day or up
to several weeks observing a professional on the job. The
main purpose is observation, not skill-building, so these
rarely result in credit.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Source: National Association of Colleges & Employers
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Marist College – Communication & Media Studies Internship Program
The Law & Internships
Federal and state laws govern internships and other student-work related situations. While state laws vary, most
states follow the federal guidelines as dictated by the US Labor Dept. A summary of these rules is available from
the Labor Department’s Fact Sheet #71: Internship Programs Under The Fair Labor Standards Act, available on the
web:
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
The Fair Labor Standards Act sets out numerous tests or guidelines for determining if a student meets the criteria
that we refer to as an unpaid intern:
 The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to
training which would be given in an educational environment;
 The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
 The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
 The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the
intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
 The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
 The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the
internship.
Keep in mind – the above rules govern only unpaid interns. Students who are fortunate enough to be accepted into
paid internships are, under the law, employees. The Marist Communication Internship Program allows students to
earn internship credit in paid situations, so long as the internship meets all the applicable criteria.
The Marist-Student-Employer partnership
Employers know that filling jobs costs money. Recruitment is expensive. Long ago they discovered one way to cut
recruitment costs: Start an internship program. Bring in college juniors and seniors studying the field. Give them
some practical experience. Result: the company gets a close look at the next wave of college graduates and is in
position to offer jobs to the best of the lot. What’s in it for the student? Access to the job place, an opportunity to
network with professionals and a chance to test drive that career aspiration.
The credit-bearing internship requires a three-way partnership between the College, the Student and the
Employer/Sponsor. The student is at the center of this arrangement in which he/she is benefiting from
opportunities offered by both the school and the employer. The college offers credits, guidance and official support;
the employer gives the student an opportunity in the “real world.” Ultimately, the student is responsible to balance
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Marist College – Communication & Media Studies Internship Program
the needs of two “bosses.” The most successful students are those who exhibit a mature and responsible attitude and
remain flexible and realistic, finding ways to balance the sometimes conflicting needs of school and internship
schedules.
Marist’s role & responsibility: The role of the college is to assist students in locating a high-quality internship
opportunity and in providing advice for the application process. The Communication Internship Program is a
partner with the Marist Career Services Center and helps to maintain employer listings in the FOXQUEST
database. We believe our main role is to help you become the best candidate you can be, which is why we require
students to take the CRDV100 Employment Practicum class. This 1-credit class is designed to help you develop a
professional resume, prepare for a competitive interview and learn how to target specific employers. Further, the
Communication Internship Program staff is responsible for supervising your internship experience, evaluating your
performance and assigning a grade. We use writing assignments to help measure what you are learning and
experiencing and we have a sliding scale of hours worked per credit earned to allow students to maximize
internship credit opportunities.
Further, the college acts as a “gatekeeper” by evaluating the quality of internship sponsors. It is the college’s job to
determine if a sponsoring employer has a worthwhile venue for students. Internship coordinators actively add – and
subtract – employers from their listings. If you have any questions about how this works please contact the Marist
Center for Career Services or your child’s Internship Coordinator.
Sponsoring employer’s role & responsibility: The employer’s role is to serve as your mentor, to give you a
reasonable opportunity to observe and gain some experience in a particular field. While the college’s primary
responsibility is to further your education, the employer’s primary responsibility is to its core mission – producing
advertising, or developing and selling video games, etc. Internships are low priorities for most employers. Accepted
business ethics dictates that employers should treat interns in a professional manner. However, the law stipulates
that interns are not to be given work from which the employer “derives an immediate benefit.” Further, the law
stipulates that interns cannot displace other workers. So, the employer faces some contradictions in purpose.
Employers typically try to give interns an opportunity to observe many aspects of the work they might do in the
profession. Many employers give interns a chance to try out their skills on one or two substantive assignments.
Often, interns will report gaps in their responsibilities; they feel left out, ignored or bored. While this is not
preferable, students need to remember that the employer is straddling a long list of legal restrictions.
Students’ role & responsibility: The student’s job is to explore a career path. In order to do that students need to
be open-minded, demonstrate reliability and be realistic. First, students should understand that internships are
competitive – you don’t always get your first choice. They should view this as an opportunity to explore the world.
Second, students will have writing assignments, seminars and other “homework” as part of their internships. Plus,
they have an internship work schedule. Keeping commitments is important. Students should understand that the
employer made a commitment to a schedule, and that the student owes a duty to fulfill the work hours he/she
promised at the start of the semester. And they need to remember that homework was assigned as an aide to the
learning process. Finally, students need to be realistic. Internship tasks may be very interesting, but they could also
be routine. There will be good days and bad days, exciting ones and dull ones. That’s part of life in any workplace.
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Marist College – Communication & Media Studies Internship Program
What Parents Can Do
As a parent, you will be able to have many meaningful conversations with your college student regarding
her career interests and choices. However, you can also help your student in several direct ways.
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Marist offers support for students in many different ways. Encourage your child to visit the Marist
Center for Career Services. Encourage your child to meet with the Internship Coordinator in
his/her major field.
Career exploration classes are a great way to start. Marist offers a variety of these. If your
daughter is undecided about a major, there will be advisors and materials to help her learn about
majors.
Support your child in his/her search for career alternatives. Try to keep an open mind. This can be
a time-consuming process. Most young people need an opportunity to try different career tracks;
they don’t know always know exactly what they want.
Talk to your son or daughter about how you started your career. Discuss the pros and cons of your
job. Recruit relatives or friends to do the same.
Networking is a skill. It takes practice and effort. But it pays big dividends. Encourage your child
to take advantage of networking opportunities at Marist. The Marist Center for Career Services
hosts numerous networking events each year, including career fairs and one-on-one sessions with
employers.
Volunteer! Every academic department at Marist welcomes the involvement of interested parents
and alumni who wish to assist students with career advice and job-seeking. Sign up with the
Center for Career Services to serve as a professional mentor or contact the appropriate dean and
discuss how you can help.
QUESTIONS?
Internship Director
Prof. Gerry McNulty
Gerald.mcnulty@marist.edu
845-575-3655
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