Interested graduate students should confer with their advisor to discuss arranging a GEOG 510 internship. Graduate students may earn up to 6 hours academic credit by enrolling in GEOG 510, Internship. Cooperating agencies or business are expected to give interns an opportunity to participate as broadly as possible in the activities and responsibilities of the organization. Ideally, the intern will be assigned one or more projects that can be completed in one quarter. Grading for the internship is pass/no pass, as based in part on comments from the intern's workplace supervisor.

Internships are NOT funded by the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Tuition must be paid to gain academic credit. Expenses are the student's responsibility. However, cooperating agencies or businesses are encouraged to financially assist interns if their budgets permit doing so.

As far as specific activities that might be pursued during an internship, there is no formula or blueprint for this, and is highly dependent on the needs of the organization offering the internship. It is up to the intern provider to work out with the student what the provider specifically needs to have done within their own company or unit.

Guidelines

  1. For each hour of academic credit, students are required to work as an intern at least three hours per week.
  2. Students should try to work at least 16 hours per week at the cooperating agency or business. Additional coursework should be kept to a minimum during the term of the internship.
  3. Tuition and fees should be paid during the term of the internship.
  4. It is recommended that students have at least a 3.0 grade point average in geography courses, and, if undertaking a GIS internship, that they have already completed the following courses.
    • GEOG 370, Geovisualization: Cartography
    • GEOG 560, GIScience I: Introduction to Geographic Information Science

Before undertaking an internship, students are required to submit a one-page résumé and a one-page proposal to their faculty liaison and the internship employer indicating: 1) why an employer should provide an internship, and 2) what goals the student wishes to achieve with the internship.

At the end of the internship, students must submit to their faculty liason and the internship employer, a 2-3 page written report of activities and accomplishments. This report should describe the work experience, an overall reaction to this work, what the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences might do to help students better prepare for internships, and what additional steps the student will take to improve his or her skills. The report will be presented to the faculty liaison for the internship program.

GEOG 510 - Internship Proposal Guidelines

The purpose of the Internship is to provide a term by term applied learning experience for graduate students. The student is expected to utilize knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom, and to learn new techniques and applications while providing useful products for the host employer.

The student should develop a clear conceptual view of specific intern opportunities and responsibilities, and establish a work plan and schedule with the host employer. Clear project objectives and work tasks should be explicitly established. Where additional training may be required, the student should expect assistance and supervision from the host employer so that both parties might benefit from the resulting enhanced productivity of the student.

An internship proposal should provide the student, academic advisor, and employer an overall view of the purpose and objectives of the work program. The proposal should be developed cooperatively by the student and the employer, with a view to establishing realistic educational and production goals in the time available to the student. The student should be cognizant of the time requirements of such a program, and that employers often request substantial blocks of time to maintain work continuity. The basic requirements of a proposal include the following:

  • Student's name, address, and phone number / email
  • Employer or Supervisor's name, address and phone number / email
  • Facility name
  • Begin date of internship experience
  • End date of internship experience
  • Number of university credits scheduled
  • Number of hours per week on work schedule
  • Student's learning objectives
  • Employer's production objectives

 

Other Information about Internships

 

OSU Career Development Center Internship information

 

We would greatly appreciate it if you would bring back photos (either to be scanned or on disc) and a short write-up of your experiences for us to use on our website or in publications.