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Information for Internship Sponsors

General information for current and prospective sponsors

Internships in the English Department are offered with the cooperation of various organizations to provide a supplementary educational experience for undergraduate English students. The program is designed to give our junior and senior students the opportunity for career exploration and development related to the English major. Although most positions involve writing, research, editing, or teaching, all placements enable students to learn new skills, explore career interests, and encounter new social and intellectual challenges. Students are encouraged to view the program as an opportunity for a learning experience with long-range benefits.

We have found that the best placements include the following:

  • A clearly delineated position description.
  • Duties and responsibilities that are not haphazardly determined nor purely clerical in nature.
  • Provision of specific work area for the intern.
  • Exposure to other professional staff, clientele, etc. (as appropriate) for professional growth.
  • Opportunities for mentoring in  career learning environment.
  • Opportunities for feedback and discussion.

Options for student compensation:

Most internships are unpaid opportunities, providing a significant opportunity for learning and growth. Students may be compensated on an hourly basis for their work, but students who are paid need to obtain special approval to earn credit for a paid internship. This is to discourage the use of internship credit for regular employment that was not designed as an internship opportunity. The employing organization may provide a stipend to the student that may cover all or part of the following things: tuition costs for the experience, transportation, parking, or other expenses related to the internship.

Finding an intern:

If you are interested in sponsoring one of our students as an intern in your organization, click here for placement information.

Internship requirements:

Students who participate in an approved internship can earn academic credit through ENGL 491 at the rate of one quarterly credit for every three hours per week devoted to the internship during the quarter (maximum 6 credits per quarter). Once you have hired a student intern, it is up to the student to arrange for academic credit with our office. Student interns fill out an Internship Learning Contract that specifies their learning goals and the activities the internship will provide in order to meet those goals. (If you'd like to read more about student requirements, see Internship Information.) After the second week of the quarter, we will contact you by e-mail to let you know that one of our students has enrolled for credit for an internship experience with your agency. (If you need evidence of a student's enrollment earlier, please don't hesitate to contact the internship coordinator at nsisko@uw.edu.) At the end of each quarter, we'll ask you to submit a Student Intern Performance Evaluation that details the intern's accomplishments during the internship and suggests areas for improvement.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact the internship coordinator, English Advising Office, Department of English, Box 354330, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-4330, nsisko@uw.edu.

Completing the intern's performance evaluation

Use the online Student Performance Evaluation to submit your assessment and comments in a secure, paperless format. The link will be sent to you by e-mail by the internship coordinator two weeks before the end of the quarter.

We encourage you to review the results of your evaluation with the student intern and to discuss both areas of strength as well as areas where the student can improve and develop in future internship or employment situations.

Setting up a new internship (advertising your internship, finding a student intern)

To set up a new internship and advertise it to UW English undergraduate students, please follow these steps:

1. Develop an internship description that includes these elements:

  • Internship title
  • Description of duties
  • Explanation of the benefits to the student (i.e., what will be learned, what skills can be developed, what training or mentorship will be provided, etc.)
  • If this is a paid or stipended position, please specify (most internships are unpaid)
  • Number of hours per week
  • Start date
  • Time commitment (one quarter, two quarters, etc.)
  • Your organization's name
  • Internship supervisor's name
  • Materials you'd like applicants to submit (résumé, cover letter, writing sample, etc.)
  • Skills or qualifications that you'd like applicants to possess
  • How you'd like applicants to contact you (phone, e-mail, fax, postal mail) and contact information

2. This is how  to deliver this information to us:

3. When we receive the information, we'll review it and distribute it to our students in the following ways:

  • We'll send an e-mail announcement to our students
  • We'll add your organization to our list of internship sponsors on our internship blog
  • We'll speak with students individually about suitable opportunities

The Department of English does not, as a rule, recruit students to fill particular internship positions, but we do prominently display listings, distribute listings electronically to our student e-mail lists, and routinely encourage students to consider the merit of such an experience. We can neither guarantee a sponsoring agency an intern nor a student an internship. This office can only serve as a clearinghouse, providing opportunity and structure.

4. Once you've selected a student, it's up to the student to arrange for academic credit through our office. The student does this by filling out an Internship Learning Contract. We'll send you a confirmation e-mail message during the third week of the quarter, letting you know that the student is enrolled for credit. If you need this confirmation earlier, please don't hesitate to contact our office at nsisko@uw.edu.

5. If you have any questions or concerns, or if you'd like assistance at any time, please contact the Internship Coordinator in our office at nsisko@uw.edu.

 

The University of Washington, as a standing policy, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or status as a disabled veteran or Vietnam era veteran. This applies to all University programs and facilities. If it were determined that a sponsor or sponsoring agency was in violation of this policy, we would discontinue the internship agreement.

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