UW-River Falls Journalism

TO THE INTERNSHIP SITE SUPERVISOR

Thank you for taking one of our students under your wing. Real-life work experience plays a valuable role in preparing aspiring journalists for a professional career. We appreciate your willingness to guide and advise our students.

As part of our department assessment plan, professional critiques of student work provide us with important information as we continue to fine-tune our curriculum to meet the needs of today's newsrooms. We take your role as a site supervisor very seriously.

Please note that by agreeing to be an internship site supervisor, you have committed to giving constructive feedback to the intern throughout the internship, meet with the internship coordinator once during the internship, and at the end, evaluate the intern's work and critique his/her résumé .

For your convenience, work evaluation and résumé critique forms are available online. When finished, simply press the SUBMIT button.

Academic Internship Instructions

Sandy Ellis, Internship Coordinator
UWRF Journalism Department
410 South 3rd Street
River Falls, WI 54022
(715) 425-3169
FAX: (715) 425-0658

JOUR 379 (3 credits) may be applied toward Journalism Electives in either the journalism major or minor. Grading is on a PASS/FAIL basis.

A student must work a minimum of 150 hours (approximately 11 hrs/week in a 14-week semester or 13 hrs/week during the summer).

Write a letter to the Journalism internship coordinator. Indicate your decision to take an internship for academic credit and include the following information:

your UWRF ID#, address, telephone # and e-mail address
name, address, telephone of employer
general job description
courses (with grades) you've taken that will relate to the job
name of site supervisor

Have your site supervisor write a letter to the Journalism internship coordinator. The letter must be on company letterhead and signed. The letter may be faxed to the Journalism office at 715-425-0658 or sent via email to sandra.ellis@uwrf.edu. Make sure your supervisor is aware of your registration deadline. The letter must include the following:

confirmation that you have been hired
your specific duties and responsibilities
the starting and ending dates, hours/week, total number of weeks, and total number of hours
remuneration: indicate whether the internship is a paid position. If so include the amount
agreement to provide a written evaluation of your work at the end of the internship
agreement to critique your résumé at the end of the internship

Keep a weekly journal of what you're learning as well as your impressions of the company (management, organization, morale, etc.). Note any challenges, legal problems, ethical situations, or cultural diversity issues that arise. The journal will be helpful later when you write a summary of your experience.

Collect samples of your work to turn in with your summary.

Expect a planned (not a surprise) on-site visit by the coordinator to assess your progress. If the internship is not within driving distance, expect a telephone call.

Give your site supervisor a polished résumé to critique.

Write a summary (3-5 pages, double-spaced) of your experience: What did you learn/accomplish? What challenges did you overcome? How did you or the company handle legal, ethical or cultural diversity issues? If you could do something over, what would it be and why? Would you recommend the internship to others? Attach samples of your work.

Remind your site supervisor to submit your work evaluation and résumé critique to the internship coordinator. You will receive a copy of the work evaluation and résumé critique after your grade has been posted.

NOTE: Internship credit will not be entered on your transcript until both your summary and the site supervisor's evaluation are received.