Providing Internship Opportunities
Confirm an existing internship or register a new opportunity
In addition to the Baccalaureate and Associate degrees that students can achieve at Penn State Mont Alto, many students from our campus spend two years at Mont Alto and complete one of 160+ degrees at another Penn State campus.
Types of Experiences
Internships
An internship is a formal training opportunity that integrates academic knowledge with career experience. Students work closely with their academic professor and their site supervisor to gain real-world experience, usually for a semester or summer session. Internships can be either paid or unpaid.
Externships
Similar to an internship, an externship is a short, experiential learning opportunity. Students may choose to shadow an employee or observe within a department to learn about daily activities of a professional within their chosen field.
Service Learning
A collaboration between an organization/company, faculty, and students that combines community service and education. Students may be assigned a task that enriches their classroom experience and allows them to learn more about their field of study.
Advantages for Your Company
Advantages of offering internships to our students include:
- Gauge the talents of the new generation of workers
- Maximize their energy and eagerness to perform various types of work, gain experience, and perform well
- Interns who do well and are already familiar with your company may become potential applicants for future positions needing to be filled
- Interns who have positive experience can be a valuable marketing tool as they share their experience with other students
Expectations of the Intern
In addition to displaying a high degree of professionalism in all aspects of the work experience, students identify specific academic learning objectives in consultation with faculty. Students register for a pre-internship course during the semester preceding the planned registration for the academic internship in compliance with course prerequisites. They produce written work and/or oral work that ties the workplace experience to the classroom, as directed by their faculty supervisor. Interns may make formal, public presentations about the internship. Students must adhere to professional and ethical standards as approved and required by the work site and professional association.
Your Role
- Provide a professional environment conducive to student learning
- Set goals for internship experience as supported by organizational leadership
- Collaborate with faculty internship instructor to establish specific learning objectives; identify outcomes or expected products
- Participate in selection of student interns
- Help student build professional work site relationships
- Supervise student throughout the internship experience at the work site
- Offer an orientation program and supply necessary resources to support student success
- Provide supervision, guidance, and feedback
- Report immediately to the faculty internship instructor any student problem that develops
- Work directly with faculty internship instructor to evaluate the student performance, possibly three times; preliminary during the first few weeks, at a mid-point in the internship experience, and at the end of the experience
- Sign University Internship Affiliation Agreements as appropriate
How to Advertise Your Opportunities
Confirm an existing internship or register a new opportunity
Please contact the Career Services office by phone at 717-749-6104 or email [email protected]. We can forward any job/internship information to faculty and students so that they are aware of your opportunities. Consider coming to campus to do a class presentation, provide a mock interview experience, or set up a table to advertise your company and your available positions. You can list job or internship openings for students (and alumni) at all Penn State campuses online, free of charge, through the Nittany Lion Career Network. When your account is confirmed – usually the same or next business day – you can return to the system and enter your jobs / internships and update them as needed. You can also review resume submissions for individuals who apply to the posted positions.
Additional Questions?
Contact Career Services Coordinator at 717-749-6104 or [email protected].