Policy and Planning Internship- Spring 2013
Course Number: 762:400:01
Time and Location: Friday 11:00am-1:00pm (See below for dates)
Civic Square, Room 253
Instructor: Gina Bienski
Office: Civic Square, Room 561
Office hours: After class (Friday 1:00pm) and by appointment
Email: gbienski@gmail.com
Internship with Seminar (3 -6 credits) a 125 or 225-hour policy or planning field experience in the
public or private sector plus in class and online skill enhancement exercises. Students are required
to complete a contracted project under the supervision of a field preceptor and a faculty supervisor.
Open to 762 majors only.
Prerequisites: 100 credits, successful completion of Research Methods, and a grade of C or better in
major core requirements.
Academic Honor Code
All members of our community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly
and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain advantage not given to all
students is dishonest, whether or not the effort is successful. A violation of academic honesty is a
breach of trust, and will result in penalties, including possible suspension or expulsion. When in
doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, or collaboration, consult the course instructors.
Mandatory in class dates: January 25
March 1
March 8 (mock interviews)
April 26
Invited in class sessions: February 8
April 5
Final Presentations: May 7 and May 8
Class Schedule
All assignments are due at 5pm on date specified unless noted otherwise.
Date
Schedule
Class requirements
Topic: Introduction and expectations
January 25
In class
Review syllabus and course/ internship expectations
Assignment: Contracts due in class
Topic: Who Am I and What Do I Want to Be?
February 1
Online
Assignments:
1. Watch Video: “The Last Lecture”
2. Quiz 1 due in assignments at 5 pm.
3. Special Assignment: Plan to interview your
supervisor for your agency description during
coming week.
4. Threaded Discussion 1: Finding Your Way in a New
Workplace
Group 1 should start discussion no later than 5pm today to
close on February 15th at 5pm.
Topic: Helpful Hints for a Great Internship
February 8
Online
(Invited in class)
Assignments:
1. View PowerPoint on Hints for a Successful
Internship
2. Log memo 2
Guest speaker: Larry Jacobs from Career Services in Room
261 at either 9:45am or 11:10am. Attendance is optional,
but strongly encouraged. He will discuss resume writing.
Topic: Communicating Like a Pro
February 15
Online
Assignments:
1. View PowerPoint on Public Speaking.
2. Quiz 2 due at 5pm.
3. Agency description due in assignments at 5pm.
4. Threaded discussion 2: Getting heard in the new
workplace.
Group 2 should start discussion no later than 5pm today to
close on March 1 at 5pm.
Topic: Time management
February 22
Online
Assignments:
1. Watch Randy Pausch’s Time Management video
2. View PowerPoint on Time Management
3. Quiz 3 due at 5pm.
4. Log memo 2
Topic: Professionalism in the Workplace
March 1
In class
Appropriate dress, effective communication, ethical
considerations, interviewing, etc.
Discuss resources for interview questions and potential
entry job level opportunities.
Mock interviews: 11am-2pm. See schedule for your
group’s meeting time and location.
March 8
In class
March 15
Online
March 22
No class
Assignment: Draft project description memo due in
dropbox at 5pm
Assignment: Log memo 3
Spring Break
Topic: Cultural Diversity
March 29
April 5
Online
Invited to class
Assignments:
1. View PowerPoint on “Cultural Diversity in the
Workplace”
2. Quiz 4
3. Final project description memo due in assignments
at 5pm.
Guest speaker: Tamara Swedberg will show you how to
develop a professional PowerPoint presentation in Room
261 at 9:10am or 11:10 am
Attendance is optional, but strongly encouraged.
Assignment: Career path plan
April 12
Online
Assignments:
1. Log memo 4 due in assignments
2. Draft poster due in dropbox
April 19
Online
Topic: Learn to Negotiate, Deal with Conflict, and Find the
Win-Win
Assignments:
1. View Power Points on Strategic Alliances,
Negotiating, and Conflict Resolution
2. Quiz 5 due in assignments at 5pm.
3. Threaded discussion 3: So you think you are a
professional.
Group 3 should start discussion no later than 5pm today to
close on May 3 at 5pm.
Topic: Lessons learned
April 26
In class
Wrap-up: Now you are a professional! What has this
experience taught you? Moving forward…
Assignment: Final poster due by 5pm
Make-up day
May 3
May 7 and 8
May 8
Assignment: Log memo 5
In class
Poster presentations: Arrive 20 minutes before your
session in order to set up your poster.
Completed time validation sheets due by 5pm.
Grading:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
POSTER PRESENTATION - 30 pts
QUIZZES –10 pts
PROJECT DESCRIPTION MEMO - 8 pts
AGENCY DESCRIPTION MEMO -10 pts
LOG MEMOS -10 pts
MOCK INTERVIEWS - 10 pts
THREADED DISCUSSIONS –7 pts
INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE EVALUATIONS - 5 pts
VIDEO CAREER PLANS - 5 pts
PARTICIPATION – 5 pts
Poster Presentation: You are required to identify and complete a policy or planning project that
includes a measurable outcome or deliverable for your internship. The projects will be presented
in a poster session that is mandatory for the course. Training for the posters is offered once a
semester and it is highly recommended that you attend. Preceptors should be invited to attend
your presentation.
Quizzes: Quizzes must be completed by 5pm on the day they are assigned. Late quizzes will result
in deducted points. Failure to submit a quiz will result in a zero.
Project Description Memo: Prepare a project description for my approval and your preceptor’s
approval. Present your project description in formal business memo format. This means no typos,
correct grammar, brief and relevant information using no more than two pages. Use bullets and
subtitles to organize your information. The key to writing in the business environment is clarity,
accuracy and action driven sentences. See sakai site/ Resources/ Project description memo for
further instruction and examples. Due in drop box.
Agency Description Memo: For this assignment, you are required to interview your supervisor
and review materials from your organization. Then prepare a 1-2 page report that includes all of
the key information listed below. However, I do not want to see this organized as a laundry list.
Rather, I hope you will find a creative way to weave all the facts into an interesting agency
description that we all want to read. Due in Assignments
Agency Mission
Long Term Goals
Clients Served
Major Programs
Supervisor's Responsibilities
Future Opportunities for Growth
Barriers or Future Threats
Log memos: Business memo format to me as Intern Coordinator from you with your title as intern
with your agency. Use short sentences with active voice that are grammatically correct and
organized in brief paragraphs. See sakai resources/ log memos for examples and further
instructions. You will receive a single grade for all logs submitted with overall quality and
improvement key considerations. They are due in Assignments by 5pm on noted days. Late
submissions will result in deducted points.
Name them as LastnameMemo#
Mock Interviews: You will be assigned to a team of approximately 4-5 class members in the
second week of class. You will work as a team on your mock interviews. Each student will be
interviewed by his or her team members and then in turn, will interview the other team members.
You will then decide among yourselves who gets the job.
Threaded Discussions: Your team is responsible to lead an online threaded discussion on
important issues faced by interns. You will craft thoughtful questions to lead the class towards
useful strategies that will help them deal with these situations. Students need to reply to at least
two comments. See syllabus for the schedule of discussions.
Internship Experience Evaluations: Your preceptor will be asked to evaluate you and this
evaluation will be factored into your internship experience grade along with log memos and class
discussions.
Video Career Plan: More and more recruiters, employers and graduate schools are relying upon
short videos summarizing the skills, experience and interests of their candidates. In this exercise, I
would like you to talk about who you are, what your career plans are and how you intend to achieve
them. I welcome creativity but also want to see that you have thought hard about your next steps.
You should use a video camera or computer with video capacity to make a 3 minute video for this
assignment. If you are unable to gain access to the right equipment, then you may do a PowerPoint
or use another creative medium but it must have a voice over and not merely be a slide driven
written presentation. Please use YouTube to house your video and provide a link to me for viewing
purposes.
Participation: Students are required to attend mandatory class sessions and expected to
participate by sharing their experiences at the internship. It is your responsibility to check the
sakai site and your Rutgers email account for any notices.
Timesheets: You must complete all 125-225 hours in order to receive a grade for this course. You
should submit your timesheet (see sakai resources/contracts & forms/validated time sheet) signed
weekly by your preceptor no later than May 8th. These may be verified by the internship
coordinator with your preceptor. Please note that anyone graduating in May must submit their
timesheets by May 8th in order to walk.
A letter of recommendation from your preceptor will demonstrate completion of field
assignment. (Suggested but not required.)
Required Viewing:
Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Randy Pausch, Time Management
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758