Internship Coordinator 

Selection Process: Appointed by the Chair upon recommendation of the Steering Committee.
Term of Office:  Three-year renewable term.

Description: 

This is a student-driven position, with the objective of helping students use the knowledge gained from English studies to obtain experience leading to fulfilling and lucrative careers.  The Internship Coordinator is responsible for arranging internships for English majors, English minors, journalism minors and professional writing certificate candidates who may be non-English majors.  This person recruits companies and agencies and maintains contact with these agencies, which are mostly within the community but also are spread across the state and nationally to ensure steady and varied offerings of experiences for students.  In addition, this individual operates as a liaison between the Department and the community, between the Department and the student, and the Department and the University.  Normally, the Internship Coordinator supervises interns in lieu of one course assignment each semester.

Duties of the Internship Coordinator

The internship Coordinator is responsible for completing or delegating the completion of the following administrative duties:

Students 

• Contacting students by e-mail or telephone or meeting face-to-face to explain the purposes of the program

• Creating and maintaining an interactive Web presence as part of the Department site

• Determining  students’ eligibility for the internship

•  Meeting with students individually to fully discuss career options and how internships can be crucial to those careers

• Informing students of new internship opportunities that arise during the semester

• Marketing the internship program to all students within the department as well as PWO candidates

• Instructing students on resume construction, as well as the interview process

• Mentoring students throughout the semester by meeting with them monthly (more often if necessary) during the internship semester and reviewing produced materials, including journals and any published work.

• Instructing students on handling problems that occur in the workplace, e.g. not feeling part of the organization, difficult co-workers, etc.

• Dealing with issues in agencies that are not congruent with the students’ academic and experiential progress (e.g., not enough professional work, legal issues, unrealistic expectations, etc.)

• Working with students who have difficulties understanding the responsibilities and boundaries of internships

• Mediating difficulties between students and agencies, including reassignment if necessary

• Answering any and all queries from students pertaining to the internship process

• Meeting and enrolling potential interns for upcoming semesters

• Making visits to selected sites during the semester

• Working with the Undergraduate Advisor and Professional Writing Coordinator as needed to assign credit hours for certificate/graduation

• Collecting final papers, journals and portfolios to assign final grades

Agencies and Community 

•  Contacting outside agencies to explain internship program

• Explaining to agencies how to best serve the students and the expectations for the internships

• Actively recruiting agencies while explaining the skills and aptitude of the students

• Determining, through subtle questions and visits, if an agency will or is operating in the students’ best interest

• Securing all paperwork with agencies to adhere to the CAS requirements for credit

• Securing all paperwork, including faculty, agency and other campus and state departments

• Procuring updated information from agencies as required

• Expressing appropriate appreciation to agencies through thank you letters, personal visits, small gifts

•  Maintaining database of agencies for speedy retrieval

• Developing agencies outside of the local area e.g., regional, national, international

Department 

• Assisting any and all faculty members who wish to mentor an undergraduate student

• Answering any questions about the internship process

• Taking recommendations from faculty as pertains to potential interns and potential agencies

• Assisting the Graduate Coordinator as needed with the enrollment/management of graduate interns

• Keeping records, within reason, of numbers of interns, service hours expended and other information the Chair may require for various reports

• Determining boundaries of internship enrollment as determined by the CAS

•  Utilizing technology to make the internship process as efficient as possible while maintaining attention to each individual student

• Maintaining, within reason, an open-door policy to better serve students

University 

• Maintaining contact with Career Services to share agency information

• Remaining aware of all University mandates regarding internships; typically through Internship Committee meetings but also through e-mails from various sources

• Working diligently to push through initiatives that impact the interns (e.g., liability insurance)

• Working with other departments as needed (for example, International Studies) to determine validity of internship experience for UNCW credit