The St. Kate’s Internship Program is designed to give students a professionally supervised and planned work experience that can connect to their academic program, build skills, and develop career interests. Support is provided to all students, employers, and faculty to ensure a positive internship experience.
Internship Preparation and Set-up
Your internship registration requires you to complete an Experience Request in Handshake. Before you complete this request form, please see what information is required below, as you will not be able submit the Handshake form without all the information. Some of this information requires you to collaborate with your faculty advisor and internship site supervisor.
Gather information from your Faculty Advisor and Internship Site Supervisor:
- Find a Faculty Advisor (any professor in the associated major/minor)
- Meet with your Faculty Advisor to:
- Discuss internship duties and responsibilities to ensure the experience meets department criteria (review position description, if available)
- Determine assignments for evaluation (e.g., journal, literature review, presentation, etc.)
- Create internship goals based on Career Competencies (must have goals in at least 4 competency areas)
- Meet with your Site Supervisor to:
- Discuss internship duties and responsibilities
- Share internship Site Supervisor responsibilities document
Internship details needed for your Handshake request form:
- Number of credits (0, 2, 3 (fashion only), 4)
- Number of Hours per week for the internship
- The internship salary (hourly or stipend can be entered)
- The internship start and end date
- The organization name, and location of the internship site
- The position title (e.g., “Human Resources Intern”)
- The Major/Minor Associated with the Internship (e.g., “History”)
- Faculty Contact Information
- Site Supervisor Contact Information
- Read the (Experiential Learning Participant Agreement)
- you will complete this agreement in Handshake when you submit your internship experience request
Internship Registration Checklist and Instruction Manual
Determine Credits
Depending on your academic program, you may have an internship requirement. If this is the case for you, talk to your department and academic advisor to make sure you are meeting the number of credits required for your program. The chart below tells you how many hours are required per credit.
| Credit Options | Hours/Week | Hours/Semester | Available To |
| 4 credits | 10-12 hours | 150-160 hours | All Students |
| 3 credits | 8-10 hours | 120 hours | Fashion Majors Only |
| 2 credits | 5-6 hours | 75-80 hours | All Students |
| 0 credits | 5-6 hours | 75-80 hours | All Students |
Searching for an Internship
Searching for an internship is much like searching for a job. Below are a few sites that post a lot of student internships, but go to our Finding a Job page for more comprehensive guidance on finding an opportunity.
Search by area of interest:
Click below on the button associated with your area of interest to learn about organizations that have hired St. Kate’s interns in the past.
Search on internship posting sites:
Handshake – Search for internships and build profiles
- To search for on-campus internship opportunities, search Handshake > Jobs > Filter for “on-campus” > search “intern” and this will bring up all current internship listings on campus
- To search for off-campus internship opportunities, search Handshake > Jobs > Filter for “internships” and any other helpful fields (e.g., location, industry, etc.)
St. Kate’s Community Leaders Program – Search for paid internships at local organizations. These positions are posted by Community Work and Learning and are designed as high-value experiences that benefit the student and organization.
- To search for Community Leaders positions, search Handshake > Jobs > Filter for “on-campus” in advanced search settings > and search the term “community leaders” for a list of current openings
Katie Leadership Impact Internships – Search for paid internships designed to develop leadership competencies
Indeed – Filter the Job Type to “Internships”
Information for Faculty Advisors
The following information will go over expectations for those acting in the Faculty Advisor role for the Internship Program.
Before the internship
Since the Faculty Advisor (FA) is responsible for evaluating and grading the intern, the FA should meet with the intern to ensure they understand your expectations related to:
- How you will evaluate the student. FAs will have a mid-term and final evaluation from the employer to use to evaluate the intern. Most FAs also require students to complete an assignment. The assignment is entirely up to you. Common assignments include:
- Reflection paper
- Journal
- Literature review
- Research paper
- Presentation (e.g., Biology Symposium participation)
- Projects and responsibilities as they relate to any program requirements. Some programs require students to closely connect the work of the internship to the academic subject, while others allow students to pursue areas of interest that don’t necessarily connect their academic focus.
- How you will communicate with each other throughout the internship. How often will you touch base? What are your preferences for communication. At minimum, please plan to meet with your intern before, at mid-term, and at the end of the internship. Since the student is likely conducting their internship off-campus, please emphasize that they should reach out to you and Career Development immediately if they have any safety concerns at their site. If you hear of any concerns, please loop Career Development into the conversation.
- Determine how often you need to check their timesheet, and what you’ll accept for a timesheet (here is a link to a blank one in case they don’t have one to pass along from the employer).
- Help students create internship goals based on Career Competencies. Students must have goals in at least 4 competency areas.
During the internship
- Check in with the student at least twice, once after you receive the mid-term review, and once after you receive the final evaluation. These evaluations are completed by the site supervisor and forwarded to you and the intern.
- Discuss challenges, responsibilities, and progress on goals, projects, and assignments.
- Reach out to the site supervisor after receiving the mid-term review to talk about the intern’s progress.
- Ensure that the intern is completing the hours they agreed to in the learning contract.
After
- Evaluate the intern based on the mid-term and final reviews, any assignments you assigned, and submit a letter grade at the end of the semester.
Information for Internship Site Supervisors
The following is a list of expectations for an Internship Site Supervisor
- Ensure that your intern understands expectations around projects/duties/deliverables, communication, timesheet approval, schedule, dress code, etc.
- Meet with your intern regularly to assess progress on goals and projects, address any concerns, and answer any questions.
- Complete two evaluations, a mid-term and final evaluation. You will receive a link to these evaluations from Handshake (handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com)
- Approve time for the intern at least once at mid-term and once at the end of the internship or according to their faculty advisor’s preferences and organizational policies.
- The faculty advisor may reach out to you for a check-in on student progress/performance at mid-term and/or end of the semester.
Internship Fund
Internship Fund (Gas Cards)
The Career Development Department may have limited funding available for internships that are unpaid with its Advancing Equity Through Paid Internships grants for College For Women (CFW) students. For Fall 2024, this application is for consideration to receive a minimum award of $100+ in gas cards for transportation to your internship. Final awarded amount will depend on how many applications are received.
Eligibility Requirements:
- Internship must be unpaid
- Must be registered for a 2, 3, or 4 credit internship
- Complete all required internship documentation in Handshake within the Experience page
- Students must have an internship offer before being considered for the program
- Recipients must be designated as having financial need based on information from the Office of Financial Aid
Note: Students that participate in Career Development’s grant may not be receiving additional or similar funding from a St. Kate’s academic department. If there are more requests than we have funding for, a review committee will read through applications and make final decisions about who will receive funds. Please get in touch with career development for further information.
The application for Fall 2024 is open and due by Friday, August 16 at 5:00pm.
The Successful Internship
The Successful Internship guide will detail the things you can do before, during, and after your internship to make the most of your experience.
