General Information
How to find an internship: your first stops. Finding an internship takes some searching and persistence. Word-of-mouth and asking friends are tried and true methods. But Penn State has more efficient and comprehensive assistance for you. Check out:
- The University’s Student Affairs Division job and internship search site, or Career Resource Center;
- The College of the Liberal Arts’ Career Enrichment Network (CEN), which also has a database of opportunities, and also advisors to assist Liberal Arts majors;
- Nittany Lion Careers, which is Penn State’s single-system recruiting platform for all students, alumni and employers.
Grade-point average. To be eligible for internship credit, Penn State Women’s Studies must hold a grade-point average of 3.0 or better at the time of application.
Departmental Approval and Registration. Registration for WMNST 495 is not possible over LionPath, as it requires departmental approval through the director of Undergraduate Programs. See process instructions below.
Summer Internships. An internship can be held during the academic year or during the summer. Please note that a summer internship, whether paid or unpaid, will require registering for a summer course, and that tuition be paid for those credits (for per-credit costs, see summer tuition.) Penn State does not permit registering in the fall for internship work completed during the summer.
*LA495 vs. WMNST495. In order to receive credit in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, you need to find an internship that relates in some way to your feminist curriculum. And most majors do. If you land an internship that does not seem directly related, you can work with a faculty director and/or with the director of the department’s undergraduate programs to work out learning objectives and written work that would allow that internship to qualify. Otherwise, you can register for LA495, the course name for internships that are not related to your major—but that you want to do anyway!
Number of Credits. Students can earn a maximum of 6 credits per internship, according to the following scale:
Fall/Spring Semesters | Credits | Minimum work hours per week* |
| 3 | 7 |
| 6 | 14 |
Summer Semester : | Credits | Minimum work hours per week* |
(6-week session) | 3 | 14 |
| 6 | 28 |
Written Component. Internship papers or journals are assigned by a faculty internship director (see below) must be well-reasoned and go beyond mere descriptions or chronologies of internship activities. The written component of the internship must include critical analyses of specific learning objectives related to the work assignment, as well as an overall assessment of the internship experience. (N.B. If the faculty internship director assigns a non-traditional written component, such as a journal, specific parameters and requirements must be detailed on the “Objectives” section of the form).
The length of the internship paper and the number of learning objectives will vary from internship to internship, but the following is a general guideline:
Credits | Number of objectives | Minimum paper length |
3 | 2 | 2500 words |
6 | 3 | 5000 words |
Word counts do not include title page, works cited section or any reference appendices. Written work is due on the final day of regular term classes, or during exam period, as per student-faculty agreement in the approval form for the term in which the student is completing the internship. Submission extensions are the student’s responsibility in accordance with University policies on deferred grades.
Application and Aproval Process
Formal approval is required prior to registering for WMNST 495 and LA 495. Students should contact the Undergraduate Director, in order to discuss internship responsibilities and requirements, and to be registered for internship credits. The application form requires information from yourself, from your field supervisor, and from a faculty internship director.
Faculty internship director. In addition to your field supervisor, you will have a Penn State faculty internship director. This director should be a faculty member (including teaching faculty) in WGSS; faculty affiliates are also permissible. This faculty member is the one who assigns you written work and any accompanying reading, and who will assign you a final grade at the end. If you cannot locate a faculty internship director, then the department’s Undergraduate Director can perform that role.
- Attach an unofficial transcript to this paperwork so your eligibility for an internship can be verified.
- Once you have signatures from your field supervisor and faculty director, sign the documents yourself and then deliver a hard or electronic copy to the Undergraduate Director, who will submit the application. Once the UG Director submits the forms, you should see your registration within forty-eight hours.
Judith Hardes Intern Fellowship (JHIF)
Students pursue formal independent studies for a variety of reasons. In many cases, students wish to take advantage of faculty knowledge or expertise in a particular area for which there are no regularly-scheduled courses. In other cases, students are interested in exploring an issue in depth and from a feminist standpoint as a potential career, or graduate school, path and/or in the absence of Women’s Studies faculty and coursework in that field here at Penn State. Many students also earn independent study credit for their work on an honor’s thesis with a faculty member. Independent study, in other words, is an opportunity to explore topics not covered by standard course offerings, or to pursue topics covered in standard courses in much greater depth or from a more specific angle.
General Information
The Judith Hardes Intern Fellowship (JHIF) is a collaborative initiative between WGSS and the Global Network of Women’s Shelters (GNWS) that combines academic credit with financial support for domestic and/or international job experience in a feminist organization that offers support for victims of gender and sexual violence and that seeks to unite feminist organizations to address such violence on a global level. The JHIF offers support for one academic semester with the possibility of an extension into a second semester or summer. The GNWS placement is designed to help students transition their WGSS educational experience into the competitive work world by testing personal strengths, working collaboratively, and sharing reflections on work experiences with the instructor and colleagues in a feminist workplace. The internship opportunity is available year-round and is offered to students who are WGSS majors through a competitive review process. We are not able to guarantee admittance to all students who apply in any given semester. The course requirements and expectations for course credit combine the general guidelines of the department’s WMNST 495 Internship with some specific requirements for the JHIF.
Application and Aproval Process
The JHIF application requires a submission of the general application form for a WGSS internship.
This application form requires information from yourself, from your field advisor, and from a faculty internship director. Only WGSS majors are eligible to apply, and all other eligibility requirements for an internship must be met. In addition to this form, write a brief explanation (no more than 250 words) describing your interest in the JHIF specifically. Please submit all materials to wgssugprogram@psu.edu. All application materials for the JHIF are due by Wednesday, December 11 at 5:00 p.m.
For specific information regarding the JHIF and the application process please contact the JHIF Academic Coordinator, Melissa W. Wright, at mww11@psu.edu.