Office of Internships Services
Senior Inquiry Internships
These internships explore students’ abilities and interests, and emphasize the needs of a community. The sponsoring department will determine how “reflection” is demonstrated and how “community” is defined for the internship, as well as the type of evaluation (graded or pass/no-credit) and the number of credit hours. These internships must meet the standards of Senior Inquiry as established by the academic department.
Service Learning Internships
These internships integrate community service with academic study and critical thinking. While they focus on addressing a community’s needs, these internships occur within an academic context, require a significant academic component and are supervised and evaluated by faculty. The sponsoring department will determine how “reflection” is demonstrated and how “community” is defined for the internship. They may be taken for either a letter grade or the pass/nocredit option.
Academic Internships
These internships concentrate on the practical application of learning, exploring students’ abilities and interests. They occur within an academic context and require a significant academic component. They are supervised and evaluated by faculty. The sponsoring department will determine how “reflection” is demonstrated for the internship. They may be taken for either a letter grade or the pass/no-credit option.
Experiential Internships
Experiential Internships allow students to explore career opportunities without requiring an academic component. While these internships should explore the student’s abilities and interests, they need not stress the needs of a community. They may be supervised by either a faculty member or qualified staff person (a member of the Career Center or Center for Vocational Reflection, etc.). The sponsoring entity will determine how “reflection” is demonstrated for the internship. They may be taken for either the pass/no-credit option or the zero-credit option. In either case a “grade” will be included on the transcript (i.e. a P or NC will appear for the pass/no-credit option, or an A through F for the zero-credit option).
Volunteer Internships
Volunteer internships are non-academic and focus primarily on meeting the needs of a community. They may be supervised by either a faculty member or qualified staff person (a member of the Career Center or Center for Vocational Reflection). The sponsoring entity will determine how “reflection” is demonstrated and how “community” is defined for the internship. They may be taken for the pass/no-credit option or the zero-credit option. In either case a “grade” for the experience will be included on the transcript (i.e. a P or NC will appear for the pass/no-credit option, or an A through F for the zero-credit option).
Qualifications for Internships
Credit-bearing internships range from one to nine credit hours. Credits are based on the number of hours spent on the internship. Typically, one credit hour requires 35-40 hours spent on the internship site. The person supervising the internship at Augustana will determine the appropriate number of credit hours for the internship.
Credit-bearing internships may be taken either for a letter grade (A through F) or pass/no-credit. Only faculty members will assign letter grades for credit-bearing internships. The policy of the granting department concerning pass/no-credit grades will determine the status of these grades within the department’s curriculum.
Internships may be taken for zero credits. Completion of a zero-credit internship requires a student to work a minimum of 40 hours. Zero-credit internships will not affect a student’s grade-point average. These will be taken for a letter grade (A through F). Faculty and others approved by the internship committee may assign grades (A thru F) for zero-credit internships. Students engaged in an internship that requires more than one term to complete (including during summer term) may be given the temporary grade of IP. IP internship requirements must be completed within 30 days of the end of the term of the internship. (See "In-Progress Grades")
Internships taken for credit will be assessed the standard tuition fees. If students elect to take the internship for zero credit hours, they will be assessed a $50 fee.
Internships and Credits toward the Major
Only work performed under the Senior Inquiry internships, service learning internships and academic internships may count toward credits in the major. The academic department determines the maximum number of internship credits a student may count toward the major.
Internship credits of these three types (Sxx/Lxx/Axx) that do not become part of the credits toward a major will be listed as INTR-DEPT-Sxx (or Lxx; or Axx) and will be assessed with the pass/no-credit option or a letter grade at the discretion of the department. These additional hours will still count toward graduation requirements, but will not count toward the major or toward general education requirements. No more than a total of nine internship credits may apply toward graduation requirements.
Procedures for Registration
Students must register for all internships by the presentation of an appropriately signed internship registration form to the registrar’s office during the time of registration. All internships must be registered for no later than the Friday of the week preceding the term of the internship. The application deadline is the Monday, four weeks prior to the beginning of the term of the internship.
