Political Science Internships

To be eligible, students must have an overall-QCA of 2.5 or better. Exceptions may be made if a student's Political Science QCA is very strong.

As a rule, internships are limited to Juniors and Seniors. Exceptions may be made for others with substantial coursework in Political Science.

We generally require students to have completed enough courses relevant to the internship to be able to fully benefit from the experience, but that judgment is made on a case-by-case basis.

While most interns receiving Political Science credit are Political Science majors or minors, credit can be arranged for majors in other fields, as well.

Interns are expected to be responsible in performing their jobs. Interns must work for the arranged time, every work day, at the tasks they are assigned as if they were regular employees. We will want a letter from the intern's supervisor confirming their job performance at the end of the internship. Equally important, an intern is expected to make use of the opportunity to learn. This basically means doing two things:

First, the intern should do background reading on the institution or political process involved in the internship. An intern in the U.S. Senate, for instance, may be asked to read material on the Senate as an institution. This will be in addition to the background a student may have acquired through coursework.

Second, the intern must be an observer and analyst, as well as a participant. This means consciously seeking and noting the similarities and differences between what one has read and what one is experiencing or observing. In effect, it means trying to figure out how the system works, not just how to survive in one small part of it. It also entails making judgments about that system.

The record of performance of these two tasks will be in the intern's daily journal and a 3-to-5 page summary paper in which the intern reflects on what he or she gained from the internship experience.