Internships

Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I pursue an internship for credit towards my geography major?
Is the internship required for the major?
Who oversees my internship within the department?
Do I need to fill out any forms when enrolling in one of the internship courses?
Will the geography department arrange my internship?
Does the internship fulfill my fieldwork requirement for the major?
I have my internship arranged. What do I do to complete Geography 489?
I have my internship arranged. What do I do to complete Geography 698?

Q. Can I pursue an internship for credit towards my geography major?
A. Yes. We have two internship courses that are currently available. The first is Geog 489 – Internship in Geography, Upper Division, and the second is Geography 698 – GIS/Cartography Internship.

Q. Is the internship required for the major or minor?
A.If you are a Geography major, it depends on your track. If you are doing the GIS track, you must take Geography 698. If you are doing any other track, the internship is an elective.

If you are completing a Geography minor, an internship is an elective.

If you are completing a GIS minor, you must take Geography 698.

Q. Who oversees my internship within the department?
A. You will need to identify a faculty advisor who does relevant research to supervise the internship. You should consider faculty with whom you have taken a class, and you should look at faculty web pages to understand what their research addresses. For further questions not answered here, contact the internship coordinator, Professor Zengwang Xu.

The faculty supervisor will work in cooperation with your on-site internship supervisor. Both supervisors must sign your completed internship agreement form for the internship to be accepted by the department. Please see the requirements above for details.

Q. Do I need to fill out any forms when enrolling in one of the internship courses?
A. Yes. Here are the agreement forms. Please note that you will need a thorough description of the internship. You will also need signatures from both your faculty supervisor and your on-site internship supervisor.

You may need to sign a liability waiver (again, check with your faculty supervisor as to whether this is needed.)

Q. Will the geography department arrange my internship?
A. No, we’re not able to do that – you will need to find an internship with an appropriate business or agency on your own, and then ask a Geography faculty member to supervise it. Or, if you had a class with a Geography faculty member, and want to do an internship related to their research, you can ask that faculty member. They may have suggestions based on community and alumni connections and past students’ internship experiences. Here is a list of businesses and agencies that our students have completed internships with recently that may also be useful.

Q. Does the internship fulfill my fieldwork requirement for the major?
A. No, although it is possible to fulfill the fieldwork requirement through specific kinds of internships through Geography 489. The important things to know are these:

  • To fulfill the fieldwork requirement, your internship must involve fieldwork activities amounting to a minimum of 90 hours in field research related activities – in short, the gathering of data in the field (as opposed to an archive, the Internet, etc.).
  • To use a Geography 489 internship to fulfill your fieldwork requirement, you must obtain faculty approval for your field research project before enrolling. That means you need to find a faculty supervisor (see above) and you need to petition the Geography faculty to use your Geography 489 internship to meet the fieldwork requirement. To craft your petition, work with your faculty and agency internship supervisors to complete the Geography Fieldwork Guidelines form below. (Please note that in order to be considered for approval, you will be expected to list each field work activity separately and note the number of hours devoted to each activity.)
  • Internships through Geography 698 – GIS/Cartography Internship do not qualify for the fieldwork requirement.

For the complete guidelines for the fieldwork requirement, please see the following:

Q. I have my internship arranged. What do I do to complete Geography 489?
A. First, you need to arrange with your faculty supervisor to enroll in the correct course.

You need to report to your faculty supervisor every other week. This biweekly report should answer questions like these.

You also need to work on your internship paper. Here are the expectations for that paper (Geog 489 paper rubric).

At the end of the term, you need to provide your agency supervisor this form (Agency Assessment of Intern) so that they can evaluate your internship work, and you need to complete your evaluation of the agency & internship with this form (Student Intern Evaluation of Agency/Internship).

Q. I have my internship arranged. What do I do to complete Geography 698?
A. First, you need to arrange with your faculty supervisor to enroll in the correct course.

You need to report to your faculty supervisor every other week. This biweekly report should answer questions like these.

You also need to work on your internship paper. Here are the expectations for that paper (Geog 698 paper rubric).

At the end of the term, you need to provide your agency supervisor this form (Agency Assessment of Intern) so that they can evaluate your internship work, and you need to complete your evaluation of the agency & internship with this form (Student Intern Evaluation of Agency/Internship).