An internship provides the student with the opportunity to move between the academic setting of the classroom and the applied setting of an agency. The internship must provide the student with meaningful opportunities, under the supervision of a representative of the agency, to assist the agency in its mission. The agency has the right to expect serious and conscientious attention by the student intern to work assignments. The agency is encouraged to view the student as pre-professional. Internships in Sociology, Sociology/ Social Work and Criminology are designed to extend students' learning opportunities beyond the traditional classroom setting. The primary goal is for students to gain hands-on experience in professional work environments related to their academic and career interests. The internship is structured to benefit both the student intern as well as the sponsoring organization. Grant academic credit for an internship, the Department of Sociology has established the following evaluation criteria for internship students and their evaluators.

The internship needs to provide the student with a broad overview of the organization. In addition, the student should gain a clear understanding of what a particular bachelor degree career field or occupation entails. The student should have the opportunity to engage in projects and activities at a professional level. The focus of the internship is for the student to learn about the organization and develop new skills and knowledge.

Opportunity for Students to Apply Principles Learned in and Outside the Classroom

An internship should provide the student with hands-on experience and a good sense of what an actual job in the organization will be like. The student should be able to relate the internship experience to the knowledge that he or she has gained through college-level classroom instruction.

It is important that student interns be able to observe professionals in their particular field to grasp what the occupation will really be like. We encourage interns to participate in staff meetings, attend presentations and meetings with clients when appropriate. Additionally, interns should have the ability to talk to and interact with professionals in the department about their respective jobs and career paths.

The students should leave the internship with a new set of skills or improvements in their current skill set. We encourage the student to concentrate on the following areas:

Documents for the Internship program are linked in the table below. All the forms are in a PDF format for printing purposes.

Jenni Lux (third from left) interned the spring semester 2007 at The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.
Please see her comments below regarding her experience.

"This semester I interned at the Office of the Attorney General for The District of Columbia. The Office of the Attorney General conducts all law business for the District of Columbia government and the Attorney General serves as its chief legal officer. Due to the city’s unique status, the District of Columbia functions as a municipal, county and state government, enabling the Office to engage in a diverse practice encompassing a wide range of legal matters. The Assistant Attorney Generals represent the city in court whenever needed, defending the city against anyone who takes action against the city through the courts when an individual or a group, feels the city has not met its legal commitments. I worked in the Public Safety Division, which includes five different specialty sections. I chose to work in the Criminal Section which handles a wide variety of criminal offenses, from traffic offenses, to government fraud, to miscellaneous offenses, such as failure to report child abuse and parental kidnapping. As an intern, I assisted the Criminal Section attorneys in all stages of the prosecution process, from intake, through trial and beyond."