INTERNSHIPS FOR GRADED CREDIT

PROGRESS REPORTS
For each week you are on the job, you must submit a progress report noting the kind of work you’ve been doing and some sort of reflection on what you’re learning. Each report should be about 300 words, double-spaced. Thus, a ten-week internship will require 10 progress reports. Some internship sponsors, for legal reasons and otherwise, will not want to have information of this kind leave their offices. Please let the Director know of any such prohibition as soon as possible.

FINAL EVALUATION
At the end of your internship, you must submit a final evaluation of the internship. It should look much like your progress reports, except that it will take a comprehensive view of your experience. This paper should run about 900 words.

RESEARCH PAPER – A.B. and M.A. Students
You must also write an academic paper relating your work to a scholarly topic. The paper should be approximately 15 pages in length. Contact the Director during roughly the third week you are on the job to discuss the topic. If you are working on a research paper for your internship, this may qualify as your research paper; discuss this issue with the Director. Make sure to clear your topic with the Director before you begin to write the paper. If you are doing your internship at The Washington Center, see below.

The Washington Center
If you are doing your internship at TWC, your grade will be based on the portfolio you construct throughout your experience in the program. TWC will supervise your writing of the portfolio and you will submit the portfolio to TWC, which will then forward your portfolio the Director. Note: there is often a delay in forwarding the portfolio. In the interest of time, you may wish to make a separate copy of the portfolio and send it to the director on your own.

RESEARCH PAPER – M.P.A. Students
The MPA internship paper should synthesize your practical, in-the-world experience with your academic course work. To that end, review your progress reports, reflect on your organizational experience, and select a concept (e.g. budgeting, leadership, decision making, policy, organization culture, creating public value, management styles, personnel issues, diversity, communication, etc.) that stood out to you during your time in the organization. In other words, use your internship organization as a case example for examining a specific concept or idea you have learned about in your academic studies.

Your paper should include a discussion of the concept or idea you plan to examine, a brief overview of the organization, and then a discussion of the concept in the context of the organization. Papers should be 10-12 pages, typed and fully edited. Some academic research on the concept (3-4 citations) is expected. All material used should be properly cited.

If, as part of your internship, you were the single author of a legal opinion, survey grant, voter analysis, or agency report, then a substitution could be made for the above paper. Any such substitutions should be cleared with MPA Director first.

A journal does not qualify as an internship paper. Your paper should be submitted to the Internship Director.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Students must make sure that their sponsor returns to the Director an evaluation of the intern's on-the-job performance. Your sponsor will fill out this form and mail it to the Political Science Department Office.