Internships
The student pursuing an internship is expected to take responsibility for finding an appropriate sponsor and for organizing communication between the graduate director and the internship supervisor. Nevertheless, he or she should use these guidelines as an aid.
The M. A. program entertains proposals for two types of internships: field internships, which include work in the publishing industry, in technical writing, in community college teaching, in museums, in archives, etc.; and our own internal teaching internships.
Field Internships:
These internships are designed to help students make the transition
from academe to the professional world. The goal is to develop
real-world experience in a non-academic field you want to pursue after
graduation.
For internships in the field the graduate director will act as the
student's faculty supervisor. In consultation with both the graduate
director and with the off-campus supervisor of the internship, the
student will complete the Application
for Individual Graduate
Enrollment Project form.
The form provides a small space for "Description of Project." To
satisfy this description, you should complete an Internship Agreement form.
All field internships require that students keep a weekly journal,
write a short narrative paper at the end, turn in a portfolio of work
produced, and complete 3 evaluation forms. These requirements are
laid out more fully in the Internship Agreement form. In
addition, students should consult with their site supervisor in order
to lay out the more specific duties of the individual internship.
Consulting with the graduate advisor early in the
application process will help the student devise an appropriate
project. This application should be approved before the first day of
class of the academic semester in which the project is to be
undertaken.
It is the student's responsibility to find an internship and secure the cooperation of the off-campus sponsor. But the graduate director can help you develop contacts that might prove fruitful. The program maintains a file of past internships and of alumni contacts who are willing to develop an internship relationship with the M. A. Program, but, because the internship was only added to the program in 2004, our file is thin. The Career Services office is an excellent resource.
Internal Teaching Internships:
Internal teaching internships are conducted with College of Charleston
English Department faculty members. They function like
apprenticeships, in which a student works closely with a faculty member
to plan, instruct, and evaluate an undergraduate English class (usually
ENGL 110, although it is possible to intern in other classes as
well). Internal teaching internships are designed to train
students to teach composition and/or literature classes
at the college level. Such an internship is appropriate for those
students pursuing a career in teaching at the two-year college level,
a career at a four-year college, or a doctorate.
Teaching internships may also be conducted at other institutions of higher education, such as Trident Technical College or Coastal Carolina University. The College, in fact, has a strong internship exchange with Trident, where many CofC graduate students in English teach basic writing courses for 3 hours of graduate credit. Teaching internships at other institutions, however, are considered field internships and must follow the process outlined above. It is highly recommended that students undertaking a teaching internship at Trident or another institution do not do so in their very first semester in the M.A. Program. Ideally, students should first enroll in one of the College's internal teaching internships to work closely with an experienced professor before taking on writing or literature classes of their own.
As with field internships, it is the<> responsibility of the student
undertaking an internal teaching internship to secure
the cooperation of a faculty sponsor. But the graduate director can
help you
develop contacts that might prove fruitful. In consultation with
both the graduate director and with the
internship's supervisor, the student will complete the Application for
Individual Graduate Enrollment Project form (also called the
"Independent Study Registration Form"). The form provides a
small space for "Description of Project." You
should attach a contract, drafted in consultation with your
faculty supervisor, detailing your responsibilities. These
responsibilities
should include attending all class meetings. You should consult the Internship in Teaching
Composition worksheet.
For teaching internships conducted at the College of Charleston, the
mentoring faculty member will be the faculty supervisor. For
internships sponsored by other institutions, the graduate director is
officially the faculty supervisor.