Internship Procedure

BUS 488 INTERNSHIP COURSE

The Academic Internship

An academic internship is a form of experiential education that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skill development in a professional setting.  Eligible students may earn academic credit; a faculty sponsor oversees the experience. The internship is usually the length or equivalent of an academic term, usually part-time, and either paid or unpaid. An integral component of the experience that distinguishes it from other types of work is one or more forms of structured and deliberate reflection based on predetermined learning objectives.

Your Partners in the Academic Internship

SITE SUPERVISOR: Your direct supervisor will provide a position description that outlines your responsibilities and expectations for work performance, and will provide training, mentoring, and supervision of your work on site. Your supervisor will complete a midterm and final evaluation of your work performance.

FACULTY SPONSOR:  A COB faculty member who believes your internship is worthy of academic credit and is willing to work with you throughout the term. They will approve your learning goals and assign academic work necessary to help you reach your goals. They will read your weekly reflection journals (if those are a requirement of your faculty sponsor) and other academic work.  You must obtain your own faculty sponsor.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS:  BUS 488 is administered by the College of Business in collaboration with the Career Center and Handshake, which serves as the central repository for reporting and documentation, offers Internship Orientation and Debrief sessions, distributes evaluations and serves as a resource to faculty and site supervisors for best practices. The office also assesses the professional learning outcomes expected of all BUS interns, regardless of site or position description.

These partners will evaluate your performance and recommend your final grade, limited to S/U.

Eligibility Requirements

• A minimum overall GPA of 2.5 and completion of at least one semester at Stony Brook University. Only matriculated SBU students may enroll in BUS 488.

*Transfer students must meet with an Academic Advisor for a degree progress review. Your academic advisor will confirm that you meet eligibility requirements and will discuss with you how the internship contributes to your degree progress.  

*Summer Sessions – non-matriculated students taking classes at Stony Brook in the summer (or during each academic semester) are NOT eligible to register for BUS 488 courses. 

When getting academic credit for an internship, what is the credit for?

An internship experience can offer the important benefit of career exploration, be an excellent resume builder and lead to a full time job, but it is important to remember that academic credit is awarded for the learning achieved, not for the work experience alone. The primary purpose of doing an academic internship is to better understand the theories, ideas, and practices of your discipline, industry, career interests or major by actively engaging in a hands-on, work-based, learning experience. 

Registering for Credits – BUS Credit Approval

Meet with your faculty sponsor to discuss your learning objectives, confirm the # of credits to be earned and the sponsor’s expectations for academic work required for a grade.

Typical time commitment: 4 hours/week = 1 credit (50 hrs/semester); 8 hours/week = 2 credits (100 hrs/semester); 12 hours/week = 3 credits (150 hrs/semester)

The faculty sponsor and the College of Business decide the credit value of an BUS internship. Spending more than twelve hours in an internship does NOT guarantee additional credits.

To receive permission to register for a credit bearing internship, follow these steps:

1. Before you log in to Handshake to initiate the approval process you need to have:

• Your faculty sponsor secured and his/her contact information

• The internship description so you can copy it into the system or if you applied through Handshake, you may select it from the list in the system

• Your supervisor's contact information 

1. Next, you need to report your internship/co-op on Handshake. 

2. To locate contact information [email, phone#] for ON-Campus Stony Brook University Contacts - Supervisors and Faculty Sponsors – please visit Directories at: http://www.stonybrook.edu/search/people/

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO REPORT YOUR INTERNSHIP/CO-OP ON HANDSHAKE

To log into a student account on Handshake:

1) Go to https://stonybrook.joinhandshake.com/login  

2) Click the ‘Stony Brook University Student Login’ option; enter with your NetID and NetID password

3) After logging into Handshake, go to the top navigation bar and click ‘Career Center > Experiences’:

 

4) On your upper right-hand side, click ‘Request an Experience’and fill out the Experience form with all of the details of your position.

Under “Experience Type”, please select “College of Business BUS 488”.

On this page, select the correct term – ex. SPRING 2019. Select the Employer (Example: Stony Brook University; if you cannot find an EMPLOYER or JOB in the Handshake database, please select   

If you applied through Handshake, you can find EMPLOYER and the position title in the database under “Job”. If you applied outside of Handshake, please type the name of the employer and job title. Since your position does not exist in the system, the information cannot be populated.

Next, answer all questions under the section “General”. Please answer all the following questions, as they are mandatory! Add details on the internship, your Supervisor’s & Faculty’s name/email/title/phone #.

Then, click on a green button ‘Request Experience’

on your lower right-hand side.

5) This will take you to the Overview page of the experience where you can:

1. View the details of your experience

2. Communicate with the Career Center in the Comments and Activity section

3. Add Learning Objectives to measure the effectiveness of your experience and collaborate with your supervisor(s) / faculty advisor(s) on your goals

4. View or add attachments to the experience under the Attachments section on the left side of the screen​

5. Once your experience has been approved you can stay connected to the Career Center by communicating in the comments section

**DON’T forget to add ‘LEARNING OBJECTIVES’ – they indicatewhat you want to learn while working in this internship. After adding learning objectives, click ‘SAVE’ and ‘APPROVE’.

Examples of Learning Objectives:

• Gain experience in creating on-the-spot marketing plans for clientele.

• Enhance my ability to accurately diagnose problems and identify steps to solve them.

• Gain an understanding of the inventory control process.

• Strengthen my interpersonal communication skills with customers.

6) Now, the approval process to receive credits for the internship will be initiated. Your supervisor and faculty member will receive an email to approve your record. After the faculty/supervisor approval, permission to add BUS 488 internship course is granted to you in SOLAR.

EXP+REQUIREMENTS

Apply Knowledge and Skills beyond the Classroom: Experiential Learning, EXP+

The University highly recommends that students fulfill one or more of these four Pursue Deeper Understanding requirements with an approved experiential learning activity.

* Students can fulfill the Stony Brook Curriculum Experiential Learning (EXP+) learning outcomes by taking a course certified for EXP+ or through an individualized, faculty-supervised learning activity. Successful experiential learning requires reflection, mentoring, feedback, critical analysis, and synthesis.

Experiential learning can take many forms including the 13 categories defined by SUNY: Civic Engagement, Clinical Placement, Community Service, Cooperative Education, Creative Works, Entrepreneurship, Field Study, Internship, International Travel & Study, Practicum, Research and Service Learning.

Experiential Learning Contract

For individual EXP+ activities that are supervised by faculty, the first formal step in pursuing an individualized, faculty-supervised Experiential Learning activity is to complete the EXP+ contract with a faculty mentor. Please see link for a copy, and visit the supervising department for more information.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the Experiential Learning activity, a student should be able to identify specific learning outcomes. Standards Applicable to all Experiential Learning Activities

The Stony Brook experiential learning requirement follows national standards for experiential learning developed by the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE).

Interning During COVID: Check out this great video from the Career Center