Internship Employers

Thank you for your willingness to work with our students! Below, you’ll find information about our students, our program requirements, and the approval process for employers who wish to offer internships. Once you’ve read through the information below, please complete our intake form. If you have any questions, please contact me at elordan@wcupa.edu or call 610-436-2114. We look forward to working with you.

Dr. Edward J. Lordan
Internship Director

Program Requirements for Students

Students interns must fulfill the following requirements:

Be accepted in the Communication Studies program as majors or minors
Have completed three courses at the program’s lower level (Public Speaking; Communications Theory; Communications Research) with a minimum grade of C+ as well as one upper-level Communication Studies course with a minimum grade of C+
Have a minimum overall GPA of 2.8

Program Requirements for Employers

Organizations participating in the program must fulfill the following requirements:

The organization or the department offering the internship must be communication-related. Examples of communication-related organizations are radio stations, advertising agencies and market research companies. Examples of communication-related departments are human resources, public relations, marketing, or business development departments.
The intern’s supervisor must have experience relevant to the internship responsibilities. For example, if the intern will be responsible for an organization’s social media presence, the supervisor must have experience in this area. The program is not designed to assist an organization in the development of a new area of expertise with the help of our students.
The intern’s supervisor must agree to serve in a mentorship role throughout the internship. This role requires ongoing supervision, meetings during the semester to discuss project development and goals for the program, etc. Conversely, interns are not to be “left to figure it out” or given unsupervised work arrangements.
The organization must already be established. Start-up or out-of-home organizations can not participate in the program.
“Remote” internships where a student works off-site by computer or meets only sporadically with the supervisor are not permitted.
Students are not permitted to work off-site except under temporary circumstances approved by the Internship Director. For example, it would be possible for a student interning with a special events organization to work at the actual events.

To summarize, the program is open to organizations offering direct, person-to-person supervision by an employee with experience in a field relevant to communication studies-related professions.

Timing

Internships must be approved for credit prior to the beginning of the term, and run on the semester calendar. (Fall semester: September to December; Spring semester: January to May; Summer semester: Varies by specific semester)

No Guaranteed Placements

The internship program is designed to match the student’s interest and experience with the best possible opportunity. Furthermore, the program’s intern-to-opportunity ratio is approximately 1:5. While the Communication Studies department appreciates every organization’s interest in working with our students, we are unable to guarantee that we will be able to obtain a match for a student and internship in any particular semester.

Reporting Requirements

Students who take internships for credit are participating in a for-credit undergraduate course and receive a grade for their work. Supervisors will be responsible for submitting midterm and final evaluations as well as participating in an end-of-term conversation with the Internship Director to provide feedback on the student’s performance. Students will also be responsible for submitting a portfolio of their work product and a report at the end of the semester summarizing their experiences.

Growth during the Semester

While students are prepared to perform the entry-level work that is part of any internship program, the supervisor should attempt to provide the student with an opportunity for growth during the semester, offering higher-level projects and more responsibility as warranted.

Department of Communication and Media