Cooperative Education PSYCH 3179:16
Spring 2016
Professor: Carolyn Hildebrandt, Ph.D.
Office: 1077 Bartlett Hall
Office Hours: Tue 9:00-11:00 a.m. or by appointment
Phone: 319-273-7179
Email: Carolyn.Hildebrandt@uni.edu
Purpose: To gain practical experience through working in a school, hospital, business, or non-profit
organization where your knowledge of psychology can be applied
Objectives: At the end of the course you will be able to:
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explain the mission of the organization where you worked
identify the people who work at the organization and what they do
describe the kinds of people that the organization serves
describe what you did during your internship and what you learned in the process
discuss how you applied your knowledge of psychology to your work
discuss how your work enhanced your knowledge of psychology
explain how this experience will help you in the future (e.g., graduate school, career)
give advice to future psychology interns working in this position
Course Requirements:
Work: You are required to do 50 hours of volunteer or paid work at your internship site per course
credit. Your internship supervisor is the person you will report to at the organization where you work.
He/she will determine your duties and work schedule. Your academic supervisor is Dr. Hildebrandt. She
will help you apply your knowledge of psychology to your internship, reflect on what you are learning
there, and supervise the writing of your term paper.
Discussions: You are required to check in with Dr. Hildebrandt at least six times during the semester to
report on how your internship is going and to discuss your term paper. You may do this face-to-face or
by telephone. Please set up your discussions with her in advance so that you can put them on your
calendar. Your completed calendar of discussion dates/times is worth an automatic 10 points. Each
discussion is also worth an automatic 10 points.
Term Paper: You are required to write one term paper. A suggested outline and grading rubric are in
the START HERE section of eLearning. The first draft of your paper is due April 8 (three weeks before the
end of the semester). The final draft is due April 29 (the last week of the semester). The first draft of
the paper is worth 50 points. The final draft of the paper is worth 100 points.
Employer’s/Organization’s Evaluation of Intern/Co-Op Student: Isabela Varela (Career Services) will
send a form to your internship supervisor. Your internship supervisor will fill out the evaluation and send
it back to the Career Services at the end of the semester and a copy will be forwarded to Dr.
Hildebrandt. Your internship supervisor is encouraged to discuss the evaluation with you before
returning it. This evaluation is worth 100 points.
Panel Discussion (optional): Dr. Hildebrandt will be contacting you later in the academic year to see if
you would like to participate in a panel discussion for a section of Careers in Psychology (Fall or Spring)
or for the CSBS Student Research Conference (Spring). This will be a way that you can share your
experiences with other students and build your resume/vita by listing these presentations.
Grading:
Points
Discussion Dates/Times
10
Discussion 1
10
Discussion 2
10
Discussion 3
10
Discussion 4
10
Discussion 5
10
Discussion 6
10
Term paper, first draft
50
Term paper, final draft
100
Internship supervisor’s assessment
100
Total
Due
1-22
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
4-8
4-29
4-29
320
A = 93-100%, A- = 90-92%, B+ = 87-89%, B = 83-86%, B- = 80-82%, etc.
Suggested Outline for Internship Paper
Spring 2016
Please use complete sentences and paragraphs, and Standard English spelling, punctuation, and
grammar. Address each of the following questions. You may add extra material if you like.
Name of the place(s) you worked
Your title(s) (if applicable)
Approximately how many hours a week you worked
How much you were paid (if applicable)
The mission of the organization(s)
How they make/spend their money
Who works there and what they do
What you did while you were there
What kinds of people (patients, clients, students, inmates) you worked with or observed
What sorts of methods you used or observed
Selected journal entries (as appropriate)
What you learned while you were there
How you applied your knowledge of psychology to your internship
How your internship enhanced your knowledge of psychology
How this experience will help you decide what you want to do after you graduate
How this experience will help you in grad school and/or your future career
The best part of the experience; the most challenging part of the experience
Advice for future psychology interns
I'd also like you to include a purely academic section in your paper using references and APA
style. It can be on any topic relevant to the work you are doing. For example, the intern who
worked at House of Hope wrote a paper on Trauma Informed Care, the intern who worked at the
Black Hawk County Courthouse wrote about Scientific Jury Selection, and the intern who
worked at Youth Homes of Mid-America did background research on the conditions that the
boys in his care had been diagnosed with (e.g. ADHD, OCD, Conduct Disorder, Depression, and
Bipolar Disorder). We can talk more about your academic focus later in the semester. It can be a
separate part of your paper or integrated into the general content of it.
A full draft of your paper is due three weeks before the semester ends. I will give you feedback
on your draft and ask you to submit a final draft on the last day of the semester. You may submit
these materials earlier if you like. If you have not completed your internship by the end of the
semester, you may request an extension on your paper.
With your final draft, please include pictures and any brochures or handouts that might be
interesting/informative to me or future students. I will keep your paper on file in my office to
show students who might be interested in what you did during your internship.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!