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Career Services

Policy Statement on Academic Internships

  1. An acceptable internship is one, which expects the student to:

    • Make a deliberate application of one's academic knowledge and skills.
    • Continue to learn as stimulated by the problems and issues encountered.
    • Grow in one's personal maturity and confidence in one's ability.
    • Develop empathy with and understanding of persons, groups, and settings typically not encountered on campus.
  2. The proposed internship must embody significant academic purpose and content, equal in quality to a regular course, yet be of such a nature that it cannot be obtained within the existing course structure.
  3. It is conducted under joint supervision of a Bethel faculty member and an on-site supervisor outside the student's major or minor department. Both parties agree on the specific objectives and assignments before beginning and jointly evaluate the student's work during the experience and at the end. There should be a plan for on-going processing of the experience (log, weekly meetings, etc.). It is expected that the Bethel faculty supervisor will meet at least bi-weekly with the student.
  4. The position may be part-time or full-time and may be salaried or non-salaried. Routine jobs or work, which repeats previous experience, do not qualify for an academic-credit internship. The work must provide an opportunity to meet academic/educational objectives.

  5. The student must meet the following criteria:

    • Declared major or minor in the department of the internship being proposed.
    • Junior or senior standing (individual departments may permit qualified sophomores to undertake exploratory internships under special circumstances).
    • Minimum of 10 credit hours completed in the department.
    • Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00 and a 2.25 GPA in the major (individual departments may require a higher GPA).
    • Meet additional criteria as established by each department.
  6. An internship must be 3 or 4 credits with the following minimum time required on-site:
  7. A maximum of 9 credits in internships may be taken within the 122 credits required for graduation. Each separate internship must have goals and objectives different than the prior ones taken for credit.
  8. Internships are graded S/U (pass/fail). (See the college catalog under "Grading System" for further information.)
  9. This policy identifies minimum college-wide requirements. Departments may choose to supplement this with additional requirements.
  10. Students must submit a completed and signed Internship Proposal for approval to the Registrar no later than the 5th day of the internship.

3 credit internship - 135 hours
4 credit internship - 180 hours

A copy of this policy and the Internship Proposal form can be picked up in the Registrar's Office.