OLPD 4496 [Formerly BIE 4196]—Internship Guidelines for Undergraduate Students
Course Description
OLPD 4496 [Formerly BIE 4196], the undergraduate internship course, is designed as a culminating learning experience for students nearing graduation. It affords students an opportunity to seek out practical work experience related to their chosen major of business and marketing education. An essential part of an internship is the opportunity to use knowledge acquired in the classroom in practical applications in the workplace. Problem solving and creative thinking in the workplace improves the retention and mastery of information gained in the classroom.
To be successful, the internship experience should focus on a specific project or task that lends itself to analysis and resolution over a short period. A typical internship involves 180 hours of work for 4 credits during a single semester (45 hours of work per credit). Students can carry out this work in industry, for-profit or non-profit organizations, or government.
The internship is not "credit for work." Students must be engaged in specific assignments related to the discipline of business and marketing education. The student and the internship supervisor will be asked to sign a contract stipulating to that assignment. The internship contract must also be approved by the course instructor.
Prerequisites
There are prerequisites that students must meet in order to be eligible to register for this course:
- Be an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota who has already been accepted to the B.S. in business and marketing education.
- Have completed 90 credits (not counting "in progress" credits) including OLPD 3461 [Formerly BIE 3061], OLPD 3424 [Formerly BIE 3624], and OLPD 4426 [Formerly BIE 4626].
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, it is expected that students will be able to:
- Apply for and obtain an undergraduate internship related to sales and/or marketing.
- Document their work hours and products.
- Obtain a written evaluation of their work, as assessed by their internship supervisor.
- Critically reflect on and write about theory-practice linkages in their field.
- Create a visually attractive, well-organized portfolio of their internship work.
Class Structure
We do not meet together in a traditional classroom, with a group of students and an instructor. Instead, the work for this course is conducted individually and through consultation with your course instructor.
Hours and Tasks
For this course, a semester credit hour is earned by completing 45 hours on the job. Experience shows that 4 semester credits, amounting to 180 hours of work, is a manageable semester load. Undergraduate students can take anywhere from 1 to 4 credits total.
Student Tasks
- Students must read and study the content of these guidelines. Students are responsible for all details mentioned in this document, including all deadlines.
- Students register for the course – OLPD 4496– for the semester during which they will be carrying out the internship hours.
- Students obtain their own internship.
- Students complete and submit a draft contract to the course instructor, via email. The contract must be in Microsoft Word format. ALL contracts must be received and approved by the course instructor within the first 2 weeks of employment. Failure to meet this requirement will results in lost work hours that cannot be counted towards the total required hours.
- Once the contract has been approved by the course instructor, students obtain all necessary signatures and provide a final, hard copy of the contract to the course instructor.
- Students begin working at the internship position.
- Students turn in a three-ring binder with all required items (see list below) to the course instructor. This binder can be delivered to the Undergraduate Advising Suite in 110 Wulling Hall. It is recommended that you keep a separate copy of the binder for your own purposes, as in many cases, the program may want to keep the original copy of the binder/portfolio.
Course Evaluation
OLPD 4496 is an S/N course. To earn a "satisfactory" grade students must submit the following items in a three-ring binder:
- Cover Page. This should include student's full name, the current date, the semester registered, and the number of credits.
- Contract. A copy of the signed internship contract should be included in the binder. This should be placed among the first few pages of the binder.
- Supervisor's Letter of Evaluation. This is a one-page letter from the internship supervisor. It must be written by that individual and printed on company letterhead, with the supervisor's signature at the bottom of the document. In 2 or 3 paragraphs, the supervisor should comment on the tasks that that the intern carried out and his/her overall performance. Please see Fact Sheet for Site Supervisors for more information.
- Daily Log. Students must maintain a daily log of activities during the internship. This log should include the date, a brief phrase describing the activities accomplished that day, and a running total of all hours worked for the internship position.
- Formal Evidence of Hours Worked. Students must submit formal evidence of hours worked. Copies of pay stubs or time sheets are acceptable.
- Written Analysis of Internship Experience.
Students must write and submit a paper analyzing the
internship experience. This report should be 5 pages,
Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, 1-inch margins,
double-spaced. References should be cited in APA format.
The paper must address the following:
- Project: General background information including the name of organization, a brief description of the industry, the organization's products or services, and how the organization fits within the industry.
- Process: A brief description of the student's experience in the internship position. How was the internship obtained? What was the intern's position within the organizational structure, i.e. what department, division or program did the intern serve? What duties were carried out? Did original duties change, and if so, in what manner? In addition, choose at least 3 theories or models from BME coursework. Analyze the hands-on, real-work internship experience against these models and present conclusions. Please note that descriptions of the actual theories should be limited to a few phrases or sentences at most. The analysis of the theory in a real life setting is the real heart of this report.
- Outcome: Results of your work and the extent to which objectives were achieved.
- Conclusions: Share some of your personal learning, either about individual growth, work style or habits, or about the industry and future career aspirations.
- Developed Materials. Copies of relevant materials developed as part of the internship duties should be included in the binder. Examples include any documents that were created, including memos, reports, lesson plans, training materials, Power Point presentations, surveys, and any other work "product" that the intern authored.
Communication
Please note that the course instructor is available to both the student and the work supervisor for consultation and problem-solving during the internship experience. If the intern runs into any challenges, it is best to contact the course instructor as soon as possible.
Incompletes
Students are generally expected to complete an internship during a
single semester. Incompletes will only be granted in extremely rare
circumstances. The student must contact the course instructor as soon as
possible, and will need to provide documentation of the emergency
situation. If the student fails to contact the course instructor by the
last day of instruction, that student will receive an "N"; or "not
satisfactory" grade for the course.
Course Instructor
Lynn Snyder
110 Wulling Hall
86 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-624-9719
Fax: 612-624-4720
Email: snyde251@umn.edu
Revised November 2011