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Internship Requirement

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An internship is an excellent opportunity to experience an introduction to a new field or agency. Many internships do not pay but do provide the opportunity to network with professionals in the field and may lead to future employment.

Internships for Course Credit*
The Department of Public Administration requires all students who do not have significant experience working in the public or nonprofit sector to complete an internship. Two courses are required to fulfill the internship requirement:

• PA 803 Public Service Internships, 3 units
• PA 804 Internship Seminar, 1 unit
  
  A student intern must perform at least 300 hours of substantive work for an agency to receive credit.  The exact scope of work is determined by the internship supervisor, agreed upon with the student, and approved by the Department’s internship coordinator.  The internship MOUmust be completed and signed by all three parties prior to the student enrolling in the internship courses.  Each student is graded on the effectiveness of the work they conduct for the agency, based on the internship supervisor’s written evaluation as well as the written work completed for the internship seminar.
  With significant experience in the public or nonprofit sector, the internship may be waived. To be considered for the waiver, the student should submit a letter and resume to the Department Chair outlining his/her work experience in the public or nonprofit sector.
  Students considering doing an internship, should follow these steps:
1. Visit the Department’s Careers & Internships ilearn site. 
2. Respond to the “Six Questions to Answer BEFORE Beginning Your Search” Assignment posted on block #1. 
3. Familiarize yourself with the content of the ilearn site – the resource lists as well as the postings.

Once you identify an internship that interests you, follow these steps:

1. Follow the application instructions on the internship posting.  If there is no formal posting, but you have identified an agency where you would like to intern, contact the agency and inquire about possibilities.
2. Ensure that the internship meets the requirements laid out in the MOU.
3. Consult the Department's Internship Coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Shea, for clarification and final approval of internships for credit
4. Complete the MOU and register for PA 803 and PA 804.

* Note:  Some students eligible to waive the for-credit internship may wish to do an internship in order to gain additional experience.  These students have two options:  (1) complete an internship for credit, meeting all of the stated requirements or (2) complete an internship without earning credit.  The resources available on the ilearn site are useful for both.

Agencies interested in obtaining the services of a MPA student working can submit postings the Department.  Agencies needing more information about MPA student interns and internship requirements are encouraged to contact Dr. Jennifer Shea. 
Listservs are email mailing lists that allow easy communication between and among a group of people.  The Department of Public Administration has an internship listserv:

• mpainterns@sfsu.edu is an online internship newsletter; the Department puts information from all internship notices that come into our Office onto this newsletter
• To join the listserv, send the following message to mpainterns-request@sfsu.edu

                                           subscribe
For this message to be effective, you should make sure that no signature, ads, or other extraneous information is in the body of the email message.  There should be nothing in the subject line.

• To send a message to the list after you join, send the message to mpainterns@sfsu.edu.
• To unsubscribe from the listserv, you must send this message in the body of an email to mpainterns-request@sfsu.edu

                                          unsubscribe
For this message to be effective, you should make sure that no signature, ads, or other extraneous information is in the body of the email message.  There should be nothing in the subject line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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