Academic Internships

An internship is a University-sanctioned activity, paid or unpaid, that formally integrates the student’s academic study with practical experience with a cooperating, off-campus organization. The activity is designed to serve educational purposes by offering experience in service learning, business, non-profit, government, or other settings that are relevant to the student’s academic pursuit. Because this definition is inclusive of service learning experiences, a University requirement for all students, all future reference to “internship” in this policy also includes service learning. This definition also includes student placement in research experiences.

For the purpose of this policy, an internship does not include teacher preparation placements or clinical placements such as for nursing, counseling, or social work. Teacher education placements and clinical placements meet the requirements of professional and/or specialized accreditors. Those programs follow separate rules.

Hosting a student intern is a great way to provide extra support to your organization's current lists of projects while getting involved in the local community. Students who participate in internships during their college careers are more likely to succeed in regards to graduating and finding a job after graduating.

By creating a broader base for student internships within the STEM fields, CSU Monterey Bay is furthering its efforts in creating a campus engineered towards student success. Undergraduate internships have been identified as a High Impact Practice (HIP) by multiple studies conducted throughout the CSU system. These studies suggest that participation in at least two HIPs during an undergraduate’s career will substantially increase the likeliness of their success in their program with respect to increased retention rates and GPA. Once a student is engaged in an internship geared towards their desired profession, they become more determined to achieve success academically.

If a student is gaining credit for their internship with your organization, the student should work at least 12 weeks out of the 18 week regular semester (for fall and spring semesters), and 8 weeks out of the 10 week summer semester.

Other than that, there is NO LIMIT to how long or short an internship can last! We want our students to be as involved and gain as many valuable skills from their experience as possible, so multi-semester internships are encouraged. However, we also like our students to be well employed after they graduate, so please do not keep them at the intern level forever!

During the regular semester, full-time students can only work a maximum of 20 hours per week. A student may work up to 40 hours per week during summer holidays and breaks.

One of the main differences between a student intern and a service learner is the increased commitment associated with being an intern. Internships should be highly focused and more involved experiences where students work closely with site supervisors on specific projects and/or goals of the organization.

Yes! We have identified two distinct divisions of interns: academic and non-academic interns. Academic interns are interns that preform an internship alongside a class that requires the internship for course credit. These internships require a couple of risk management pieces between CSUMB and the site. These internships require a learning outcome agreement, which will be determined by the student and the site supervisor and approved by the faculty of the specific class.

Non-academic interns are students that are taking an internship completely because they are interested in the experience. These positions can be paid or voluntary, but they are completely separate from the University. These internships are not as stringent on specific learning outcomes, however we do encourage every site supervisor to relate specific projects back to their student intern's academic studies.