Offering an internship? Employers and sponsors, take advantage of these guidelines and resources for working with the University of Arizona College of Information Science.
Employer & Sponsor Internship Guidelines
Before offering your internship to our students, please read the guidelines below. If your opportunity fits the guidelines along with our college mission, follow the instructions below.
The purpose of our Internship Program is to provide students with the academic challenge of a field-based project or to provide students with practical experience in a professional setting in which they can employ the knowledge and skills acquired during their program of study.
As site supervisor for a College of Information Science intern, we ask you to follow these guidelines:
- Determine a specific project or projects or the scope of work if not project-based. This may be in consultation with the student intern.
- Internships provide three credits for the student and represent a minimum of 135 hours of student work within a semester, which is typically 8 to 10 hours per week. Hours must be worked within the semester for which the student is receiving credit.
- Meet with the student intern to initiate the proposal, which includes goals, objectives and methods.
- Decide if the internship will be paid or unpaid and determine payment amount. Students receive credit regardless of payment. However, students cannot receive internship or independent study credit for an ongoing job.
- Meet regularly with your student intern to assess progress.
- Complete, sign and submit an Evaluation Form for the student at the end of the semester for which the student is receiving credit.
- The deadlines for students to submit the Internship Application Form are August 1 for Fall semester, December 1 for Spring semester, and May 1 for Summer session.
College of Information Science Internship Listings
We also recommend you list your internship on Handshake and filter to select our students. When submitting your internship to the college, be sure to include:
- Title: It helps students if the title is linked to a real job title. When they later apply for jobs, the title can help to catch the eye of a potential employer.
- Description: Describe the work environment and job duties to be performed, application deadline, pay scale if any, and work hours. The internship advertisement may remain on the forum after the application deadline but it will not be emailed or otherwise distributed after that date.
- Site Supervisor: Who will guide or oversee the intern's work? (Please note that for our MLIS-seeking graduate students this must be a certified librarian or archivist.)
- Location: Please note that during COVID-19 we may only credit and advertise virtual / online internships. Please specify clearly if this will be a virtual/online internship. You may also include a physical location of site operations so students know where you are located physically; if you do include this, please list the city name and the state or country name.
- Program Learning Objectives: What will the intern learn? This is sometimes negotiated with the student based on their existing skills.
- Technical Skills Required: e.g. list of courses, particular computer skills
- Please list if you prefer the intern be Undergraduate, Graduate or either
- Paid or Unpaid, and Pay rate if paid: We prioritize internships that we feel will offer students value including appropriate pay for their work or value additions that compensate for unpaid work. We invite you to consider the research showing the value of paid versus unpaid internships for students' long term employment prospects.
- Preferred background and skills: e.g. degree program, course topics (such as data analysis), skills (such as public speaking)
- How to Apply: Provide a contact person or method so perspective interns can apply or contact you with questions.
Once your listing is ready, please send internship announcements to si-internships@arizona.edu. Please note that our faculty do not work over the summer months, so we highly recommend you submit your announcements from August through the end of April.
Thank you. We look forward to working with you!