Internships

What is an Internship in the School of Management (SOM)?

An internship is a program of educational enrichment designed to enhance the student’s academic and personal development in preparation for careers. The program is designed to provide students with practical field experience, while giving employers access to resourceful students preparing for professional positions. In the School of Management, we focus on the quality of the internship experience and work with organizations that will serve as educational partners with our students. The best internships are those that give students an opportunity to see first-hand what a profession is like, to engage the professionals in that specific field, and to gain practical field experience, all of which builds upon and assimilates with a student’s academic goals. An internship exposes students to many new faces and challenges, to work-related deadlines and professional quality-control pressures, and the exploration of new skills that become an integral part of a student’s transition from the classroom to a career.

A Three-Way Partnership: College-Student-Employer

Marist and the SOM support credit-bearing internships for the primary benefit of a student’s education. The SOM believes that the internship arrangement is a three-way partnership amongst the College, the student, and the employer/sponsor. The College recognizes that the internship may also benefit the employer as an opportunity to test the skills of prospective employees. Therefore, Marist interns should be assigned reasonably challenging work, suitable to the specific needs of the individual company or organization and appropriate to the student’s capabilities. Please note: Marist and the SOM cannot award internship credit for a majority of work that does not advance the student’s education and/or that is largely superficial in nature.  The best internships expose students to a range of career-related tasks and duties. Employers/sponsors must offer work in a professional setting.  Scheduling can vary widely, but employers are asked to avoid asking students to work a high number of hours each week or concentrating hours into a very short period of days or weeks.  For educational purposes, it is best for students to be exposed to a work setting for the entire semester in which they are registered and interning with their employer/sponsor.

Credit-Bearing Internships in the School of Management

The emphasis in any internship should always be on learning. Credit-bearing internships in the SOM are intended to be linked to a student’s course of study and/or curriculum and are supervised by a member of the SOM. Credit-bearing internships in the will have specific academic assignments and homework requirements. These assignments must be completed by the student as part of their internship and are “in addition to” the duties and responsibilities agreed upon between the student and their internship provider.  Final grades for an internship become part of a student's permanent academic record at Marist and will be recorded as: P (Pass), NC (No Credit) or U (Unsatisfactory). 

Upon approval by the internship director in the SOMt, a student can intern for a maximum of three credit-hours per internship, per semester*. A three-credit internship requires a minimum of 135 work hours to be completed over the course of the entire semester in which the student is registered. Students may intern for a maximum total of 12 credit-hours throughout their academic career at Marist. Please note: Academic credit for an internship cannot be awarded retroactively.

SOM Internship Eligibility and Registration Requirements

Students must meet all of the following requirements in order to register an internship for academic credit*:

• Be registered with Career Services on the Handshake system
• Have completed 45 credit hours, at least 12 of which were earned at Marist
• Be entering their junior year or have junior standing at the time the internship begins
• Have a minimum GPA of 2.5
• Have completed academic coursework commensurate with the duties to be performed at the internship
• Have approval of the Internship Faculty Coordinator 
• Have met the necessary qualifications established by the participating internship provider

*Note: Internship/Field experience credits are not granted for existing full-time or part-time jobs. All elective Field Experience/Internship credits are counted as non-liberal arts elective credits.

Internships and the Regulatory Environment

Marist and the SOM support credit-bearing internships for the primary benefit of a student’s education. The SOM believes that the internship arrangement is a three-way partnership between the College, the student, and the employer/sponsor. The College recognizes that the internship may also benefit the employer as an opportunity to test the skills of prospective employees.  It is important for employers, sponsors, and students to recognize that, under federal law, the primary purpose of an internship needs to be educational.