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Internship Handbook
College of Business Administration
Winthrop University
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STUDENT/INSTRUCTOR
CHECKLIST
INTERN: _________________________ COURSE: __________________________
SEMESTER: ______________________ INSTRUCTOR: _____________________
_____ INTERNSHIPAGREEMENT - APPROVED BY INSTRUCTOR OR DEPARTMENT
REPRESENTATIVE.
_____ STUDENT RESUME
_____ JOB DESCRIPTION FROM EMPLOYER
_____ OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR AN INTERNSHIP COURSE
_____ MEASURABLE LEARNING OBJECTIVES - APPROVED BY INSTRUCTOR AND
SUPERVISOR
_____ PROGRESS REPORT 1 (Typewritten)
_____ PROGRESS REPORT 2 (Typewritten)
_____ SUPERVISOR’S FINAL EVALUATION
_____ STUDENT’S FINAL EVALUATION (Typewritten)
_____ TIME SHEETS INITIALED BY SUPERVISOR
_____ INSTRUCTOR’S SITE VISIT AND COMPLETED SITE VISIT FORM
_____ INTERNSHIP JOURNAL (Typewritten)
_____ TERM PAPER
_____ FINAL PRESENTATION
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WHAT IS A COLLEGE OF BUSINESS INTERNSHIP?
An internship in the College of Business Administration is an educational strategy that
integrates classroom studies with work-based learning related to the student’s academic
curriculum and/or career goals. It is based on a goal-oriented relationships among the three
internship partners: the College, the hiring organization, and the student. At the work site,
students engage in a variety of professional work activities designed to provide a total learning
experience which meets the student’s stated measurable learning objectives. In addition, a
classroom component to the internship experience maximizes the benefit to the student. Each
individual student’s learning process, including both classroom and professional work
components, is developed and supervised by a College of Business Administration professor.
PLEASE NOTE WELL: Academic credit is not given for work experience alone.
Rather, work experience is combined with related classroom course requirements.
Internships in business are based on the principle that learning does not confine itself to
academic achievement but is equally dependent upon practical experience.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
To receive academic credit for an internship, the student must satisfactorily complete the
following minimum requirements:
1. Complete the Measurable Learning Objectives
2. Complete 150 hours of satisfactory work experience with an approved employer (200 hours
for MBA students)
3. Maintain a daily journal of the work/learning experience while on the job
4. Attend the Internship class meetings as assigned.
5. Receive satisfactory employer evaluations
6. Complete a final paper as outlined in this handbook or as assigned by the Internship Course
Instructor
7. Complete a final session with the Internship Course Instructor and/or your Internship
Coordinator to make your Internship Presentation.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
What do we mean by Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives refer to a set of statements which clearly and precisely describe two
things which will occur during your internship. The first, the “Activities Objectives” lists what
you intend to accomplish for the internship organization during your work term, i.e., the activities
which will occur. The second, “Growth Objectives” describes what you will add to your
expertise, knowledge, skills and development in this area or how you will be changed by the
experience.
How do I develop my Learning Objectives?
Start by reviewing your job, noting areas where you feel you can gain new skills, increase
your knowledge and change attitudes and behaviors. It is important that you avoid broad general
statements and confine your objectives to those which can be accomplished during a single term.
Activity Objectives
Usually an Activity Objective combines three major variables to form a single sentence.
The variables or components are Activity, Time Frame, and Evaluation. The activity is the
expected achievement; the time frame is the expected completion date and the evaluation is the
stated method of measurement. An example of a written Learning Objective statement would
read: EXAMPLE: By the end of March (Time Frame)
I will interview 75% of the incumbents in exempt job positions (Activity)
and translate this information into standardized job descriptions (Activity).
Note: The evaluator of this activity would be your supervisor
A very important element in describing what you will accomplish is often called the ACTION
WORD. In the example above, there are two action words used to describe the activity:
interview and translate. It is the action portion of your objectives which are measurable.
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Examples of actions words are: demonstrate, describe, develop, draw, discuss, operate, perform,
summarize, recognize, etc.
Growth Objectives
As you work in your internship position, it is important for you to focus on exactly what
skills or areas of expertise you are acquiring. Growth Objectives describe what you will learn or
what competencies you will gain from the activities you are engaged in for your internship. The
Growth Objectives are especially important when you begin searching for a full-time career
position and want to effectively communicate your ability to be an important addition to a hiring
firm. Each of your Activity Objectives will ideally lead to a Growth Objective. Thus, for the
example Activity Objective above, your Growth Objective might be:
EXAMPLE: I will gain expertise in the development of job descriptions and increase my
ability to effectively communicate with an organization’s employees.
The following are some important things to remember in developing learning objectives.
Generally, students will identify four or five areas of growth based on the various
activities they will be involved in for their jobs. This will, however, differ for each
student.
Make sure your Activities Objectives are as specific and as measurable as possible.
Try to confine objectives to those which can reasonably be accomplished during the
period
When possible, make your objectives quantitative. That is, indicate the level of
achievement that you expect to obtain. (EX: increase speed by 25%.)
Note: Your supervisor can help you identify specific areas of growth based on the
various activities you will be involved in for your jobs.
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INTERN’S MEASURABLE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
(Please type)
The written objectives should clearly describe what you intend to accomplish during your
internship work term. Objectives should be reviewed by your supervisor (who may suggest
changes or addition) during the first two weeks of the term and approved later by your Course
Instructor.
At the end of the semester, your supervisor will evaluate how well you accomplished each of the
objectives.
Activity Objectives
Growth Objectives
___________________________________ _______________
Student/Intern Signature Date
____________________________________ _______________
Internship Supervisor Signature Date
____________________________________ _______________
Instructor of Record Signature Date
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TIME SHEET
This record of your work hours will be used to verify that you have completed the total number
of work hours needed for academic credit. (Employer supervisor must initial your time sheet
each week.)
Intern/Student ___________________________Employer_____________________________
Term________________________
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
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TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
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Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
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Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
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Total Hours
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Time Worked Per Day
Week of
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Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
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Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
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TIME SHEET
This record of your work hours will be used to verify that you have completed the total number
of work hours needed for academic credit. (Employer supervisor must initial your time sheet
each week.)
Student/Intern ___________________________Employer_____________________________
Term________________________
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
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TIME SHEET
This record of your work hours will be used to verify that you have completed the total number
of work hours needed for academic credit. (Employer supervisor must initial your time sheet
each week.)
Student/Intern ___________________________Employer_____________________________
Term________________________
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
Time Worked Per Day
Week of
SUN
TUES
WED
THURS
FRI
SAT
Total Hours
Supervisor Initial
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LEARNING JOURNAL
Student interns are required to maintain a daily or weekly journal of their learning
experiences. Maintaining a journal will make it easier for you to recall and report on your daily
or weekly work experience. In addition, it will help you gain the most from your experience. An
acceptable journal entry will comprise of two sections: the Log and Reflection. Each submission
should be typed, double-spaced using 12 point font.
Log Section: A job log reports all of the activities that you have done for a specific work period.
Logs help professionals evaluate how effectively they use their time. As well, job logs can
inform managers about the tasks that engage most of a direct report’s time and may have
implications for job design. In this case a log is helpful in making sure that you are engaged in
activities during this internship that truly further your development as professionals. For each
day or week “on the job” the interns should record the following:
The date and hours you worked
The activities you completed
The name of your supervisor of those activities
Reflection Section: The primary purpose of the reflection section is to provide an opportunity for
you to integrate your training and practical experience. The reflection section should discuss the
activities you did during the work period in terms of how your coursework informs your
experience. In this section interns should:
Described what you learned this day or this week.
Identify a significant event or activity that provided a learning experience
Explain the event or activity. What happened? Who was involved? What
was the problem?
Recount how you and the other people in the situation responded.
Identify the concepts from the workshop readings and discussion that are
relevant to the situation you are describing.
Identify any other relevant concepts from your other business courses that
apply to this situation.
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Discuss the positive and negative aspects of that day’s activities.
Identify and explain any effective management techniques observed in this
situation.
Identify and explain any ineffective management techniques observed in
this situation.
It is important that the intern is completely honest in the appraisal of the activities and the
learning that are accomplished each day. It is also important that you keep your journal
current, i.e., write down things on the day they occur--otherwise they won’t make sense or
be useful. The journal will be reviewed by your Internship Course Instructor.
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THE COURSE TERM PAPER
All students are required to write a Course Term Paper. One of the objectives of the
internship is to gain a more thorough understanding of how organizations in this field operate
and how your supervisor organizes his/her work. This paper provides an opportunity for students
to integrate their coursework into a culminating practical experience. The successful project uses
the workshop content and concepts from previous courses to develop a meaningful, substantive
analysis of the organization. In every section students should conduct a SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis effectively evaluating their organization’s
performance in each of the content areas. SWOT analyses are informed and substantiated by
using concepts interns have studied in their previous coursework and in the workshops. For
example: a section on organizational culture should include a description of culture based on
models the student has studied in previous courses. Students should use external references as
well as personal experience to write their project. Finally, the suggested outline of the paper is
meant to prompt thinking not limit it. Please do not confine your project to answering the
questions. Go beyond the suggestions written here and explore your topics further.
Suggested Outline of the Paper
I. The Industry
A. Characteristics (You will probably want to briefly describe the overall business of
the industry, the number of firms, domestic and global competition, future
prospects for the industry.)
B. Future of the Industry (You may wish to consider the career opportunities in this
industry.)
II. The Organization
A. History
B. Characteristics (where the organization is located, the number of employees, the
type of business the organization is in, ownership of the organization, etc.)
C. Management Structure (You may be able to acquire an organizational chart which
shows graphically how the management and functions of the organization are
organized.)
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D. Corporate Culture (An understanding of the organization’s culture may be
obtained from your supervisor, from other employees, and, most importantly,
from your own observations.)
E. Customers which the organization serves. (You may wish to describe the
individual consumer market(s) that the organization targets and/or the business-to-
business customers. You may also need to specify which are considered primary
markets and which are secondary markets.)
F. Products (You should describe the goods and/or services which the organization
provides for its customers. You may also wish to consider how the organization’s
products are positioned among competing products.
G. Strategies (In this section you may wish to discuss the organization’s overall
growth and development strategy, their focus on and activities in research and
development, how the organization’s products are distributed, pricing strategies,
and how products are promoted to customers and prospective customers. What are
the organization’s corporate, business, and functional level strategies?)
III. Professionals Employed by the Organization
(In this section you will want to describe the individuals you have come in contact with or
know about. What are their job titles? What do they do in their careers? What are their
strengths and weaknesses? What is their education and work history?. What special
skills do they bring to their jobs? What psychological or personality characteristics seem
to be important for success in these careers? How do they feel about their careers--are
they happy, feel fulfilled, enjoy their lives, feel appreciated and justly rewarded for their
work?)
IV. An Appraisal of the Organization:
A. From a global perspective.
B. From an ethical and social responsibility perspective.
C. In regard to the firm’s future in changing environments.
(This section is not a “rerun” of the previous description of the company but should be
based on your evaluation informed by what you have learned in your course work and
from your understanding of the business world. What do you feel about the organization?
How does it fit into a global marketplace? Should there be more or less emphasis on
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ethical behavior and social responsibility? Are there aspects of the organization which
you feel are limiting their potential?)
V. Conclusions and Recommendations
Here you may wish to describe your overall perspective on the organization and
what changes you would recommend. Some areas you might want to consider are the
overall organization, the department where you were employed, the activities of people
your worked with, the overall structure of the organization, corporate culture, or any of
the areas discussed previously in this paper.
The quality of this section is completely dependent on the rigor of the analyses
performed in the previous sections. If your analysis is shallow, your recommendations
will be shallow also. Substantive recommendations can only be made if the analysis is
meaningful and the product of a considerable thought.
VI. Learning Through the Internship Experience
(Here you may wish to review your learning objectives, your journal entries, or the actual
work you have completed to summarize exactly what you have learned. What knowledge
have you acquired? What expertise or competencies have you gained? How have you
been changed by the internship experience?
VII. Overall Perspective
Here is the place for your final perspectives on the internship experience. Has it met or
exceeded your expectations or not? Have your career goals been changed or reinforced
by the experience? Has the internship experience made you examine and evaluate your
course work differently? Knowing what you know now, what would you have done the
same and what would you have done differently in your life as a university student? What
would you advise other students in an internship program? What would you say to
freshmen entering Winthrop because of this experience? What would you tell other
students who want to enter a career in this industry? How would you feel about a full-
time career with this organization?)
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INTERNSHIP PROGRESS REPORT 1
(To Be Filed at the Completion of 1/3 of the Internship Period.)
INTERN’S STATEMENT
Intern’s Name______________________________________________________
Report # 1 Covering the period from ________________ to _________________
(date) (date)
1. Describe what you did during this period.
2. Describe what you learned during this period.
Intern’s Signature_______________________________________________Date____________
EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT
Please comment on the intern’s work during this period
Supervisor’s Signature_________________________________________Date______________
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INTERNSHIP PROGRESS REPORT 2
(To Be Filed at the Completion of 2/3 of the Internship Period)
INTERN’S STATEMENT
Intern’s Name______________________________________________________
Report # 2 Covering the period from ________________ to _________________
(date) (date)
1. Describe what you did during this period.
2. Describe what you learned during this period.
Intern’s Signature_______________________________________________Date____________
EMPLOYER’S STATEMENT
Please comment on the intern’s work during this period
Supervisor’s Signature_________________________________________Date______________
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FINAL EVALUATION OF STUDENT INTERN
A major benefit of the internship experience for the student is the opportunity to receive a critical
evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses and to receive recommendations for improvement.
Please arrange a meeting with your intern at least one week before the end of the term to
complete this form and discuss the intern’s performance. Your intern will not receive credit until
this form is completed and returned.
Intern_________________________ Date___________________
Employer______________________ Supervisor_______________________
Please rate the intern on the following characteristics by checking the box which most represents
your evaluation.
Characteristics
Excellent
Above
average
Average
Less than
average
Poor
No
Opportunity
to Evaluate
Maturity
Dependability
Attendance and punctuality
Quality of work
Ability to learn
Resourcefulness
Accepts responsibility
A positive work attitude
Professional behavior and
Appearance
Can work independently
Can work with others
Can work under pressure
Has good speaking skills
Has good writing skills
Has good listening skills
Understands good business
Practice
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2. What additional comments would you like to make about the intern’s work characteristics?
3. What are the intern’s greatest strengths?
4. What does the intern need to work on improving?
5. What suggestions do you have for improving Winthrop’s College of Business Administration
internship program?
THANK YOU!
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INTERN’S FINAL EVALUATION OF INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
An essential part of a successful internship program is providing students with high quality
internship experiences. In order to maintain this quality it is imperative that we receive feedback
from our student interns. Please complete this confidential form and return to the Internship
Coordinator in the College of Business Administration. You will not receive credit for this
course until this form is completed and returned.
Intern_________________________ Date___________________
Employer______________________ Supervisor_______________________
1. Please rate the internship experience on the following characteristics by checking the box
which most represents your evaluation.
How do you rate
Excellent
Above
average
Average
Less than
average
Poor
No
Opportunity
to Evaluate
Your immediate supervisor
Your co-workers
Your opportunity to learn new
skills
Your opportunity to learn about
the organization’s overall
operations
How well the internship
experience made use of what
you have learned in your
business courses
2. What were the greatest benefits you received from this internship?
3. What were the biggest problems you encountered in this internship?
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4. Did this internship meet your expectations? Explain.
5. What suggestions do you have for improving Winthrop’s College of Business Administration
internship program?
THANK YOU!