Skip to main content

Step 2: Requirements for internship sites and supervisors:

High-Quality Internship

You should aspire to intern at the highest possible level related to your professional goals. Ideally, you should find an organization in which you will be able to work with local, national, or international communication professionals who have formal education and demonstrate a proven professional track record. We’d like you to learn from the best and also to have names of prestigious organizations on your resume when you graduate.

Established Organization

An organization must have the ability to support, instruct, and mentor an intern. Therefore, we recommend seeking organizations or individuals providing internships that have been established for a minimum of 3 years. Start-up organizations typically are not eligible to provide internships.

Qualified On-Site Supervisor

You need a formal, designated internship supervisor on site. The supervisor is in a position similar to that held by a professor and should be able to instruct and mentor you. If the person with whom you are working knows less about the area than you do, quality learning is highly unlikely. Therefore, supervisors must have either:

  1. A degree in communication or a related field and 3-years full-time post graduate experience in his/her current capacity
  2. 7 or more years of experience in his/her current capacity if they do not hold a degree.
  3. If the person is serving as a supervisor of a Communication Department intern for the first time, we may request a copy of his/her resume.
  4. You will be asked to provide the supervisor’s professional contact information, job title, education, and related employment history for verification.

We will not approve supervisors who cannot provide a phone number and email address clearly associated with the organization providing the internship.

You Are Not Employed There

You will learn much more in a new setting than you would working in a place and with individuals with which you are already familiar. Therefore, you may not complete internships at organizations where you are currently or have previously been employed.

Step 3