Internship
Liberal Studies students may choose to complete an internship as part of their program requirements. An internship is a carefully monitored work or service experience in which a student has specific learning goals and actively reflects on that experience. Internships allow students to apply the knowledge they have gained in the classroom to a real-work work or service experience. Students who are engaged in an internship must negotiate their own internship site and site supervisor, must find a willing sponsor on the Liberal Studies faculty, and fulfill all requirements set forth in the SPD Internship Program.
For general information about internships and what support Stony Brook University may provide, please see the Career Center’s website.
The Internship Process
- Students must find and propose a 3- or 6-credit internship on an appropriate site and with an appropriate site supervisor. Three credits will require 150 hours; 6 credits will require 300 hours. Students must have completed at least 12 credits of graduate work toward the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies before their internship can be approved.
- Students will identify a Liberal Studies faculty member to serve as their faculty supervisor; if the faculty member agrees, s/he will help the student write up an internship proposal. The student need not have worked with the faculty member prior to the internship, but it is recommended.
- The internship may be paid or unpaid; it may not be something a student is already doing as an employee, but should be something that requires new work and development/application of new skills and knowledge. The internship must have fixed beginning and end dates. Additional requirements may apply. Approval decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
- SPD's dean or designee must approve the proposal before the internship may begin. Once approved, students will register for CED 598 Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Internship, in the designated instructor’s section.
- Faculty will meet with interns (face-to-face or online) and provide any needed support for the site supervisor and the intern. Faculty will communicate with site supervisors as needed and will consider the site supervisor’s evaluation in the internship grade. Faculty will also work with students to respond to and grade internship written assignments, final paper, and narrated PowerPoint.
- CED 598 is a letter-graded course, not S/U. Grades must be submitted on the Registrar’s schedule, but it is possible that the internship itself may begin prior to or extend beyond a single semester, if needed.
Internship Documents