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Internships in Political Science are an excellent way to gain valuable professional experience, make contacts in your desired career field, and earn academic credit toward your degree! In the past these initial internships have led to full-time employment. Our students have had life-changing experiences working with local, state, and federal government agencies, political candidates, law firms, nonprofits, media companies, and other public and private organizations.

Two funding opportunities are available for political science students completing unpaid internships:

SECU public fellows internship program

The SECU Foundation established the SECU Public Fellows Internship Program to connect interested, talented undergraduate students with leadership to obtain meaningful on-the-job experience with a local agency or organization. Students who are accepted into the program are awarded up to $5,000 for their experience. Applications are accepted early in the Spring semester each year.

Capitol Hill Internship Program

The Capitol Hill Internship Program was intentionally designed to provide students with much-needed financial support to assist them with gaining invaluable experience that they might otherwise not have been able to obtain.

 

Preparing for an internship

You should talk to your academic advisor during the semester prior to your internship to prepare your application materials and search for internships. Typically students find their own internships, in consultation with their academic advisors and using the resources provided by the department and the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD). The job board on JobCat is a great place to begin in looking for internship availability.

Students must apply for internships and attend an internship orientation at the CCPD before receiving academic credit.

When you have secured an internship with an employer, ask the employer for a written job description, which you will upload in JobCat. After you have attended the JobCat orientation, completed the internship application, uploaded your job description, and your materials have been approved by all parties, you should contact the department for permission to enroll in PSC 483- Internships. Each semester one of our faculty members is assigned as the instructor for PSC 483. You will need your alt pin from your advisor to register for this class. Late registration results in late fees, so it is advantageous to ensure all of your paperwork is submitted on time. Once registered, the faculty member teaching PSC 483 will be your department coordinator for the internship

When the class starts, you will complete 120 hours with the placement, keep a weekly journal with short updates on your duties, and write a short final report reflecting on your overall experiences and what you learned from the internship. These will be reviewed by the faculty member assigned to the PSC 483 for that semester. PSC 483 is a three-hour credit course, can counts as your “Engaged Experience” for the PSC major or a general elective, and is graded on a “satisfactory/unsatisfactory” grading scale.