ISC399 Screening Questionnaire
Welcome!
Students in the Department of Integrated Strategic Communication may do one 3-credit internship for ISC credit.
Typically, students will do this ISC internship in one of their last two semesters, after they’ve established a foundation of conceptual knowledge and skills through multiple courses within their major. Their ISC courses range across four key areas: Account Management, Creative Advertising, Direct Response and Public Relations. By the time they do their ISC internship, we look to our students to be capable pre-professionals who are clearly assets at their intern site.
An ISC major's credit-based internship must result in a substantive set of professional caliber portfolio materials. It's expected that these materials will include a range of ISC-keyed work documenting the student's conceptual and tech-based skills.
For students, the purpose of the ISC internship is to put to practical use the knowledge and skills they've acquired in their major -- and to acquire additional ISC-keyed skills. It's also an opportunity for the student to “test” an area within the ISC professions, to see if this is a career path they want to pursue after graduation. Thus, ISC 399 interns MUST be supervised by professionals with a documented background in the ISC field who continue to be actively involved in an ISC-keyed professional work.
To help clarify situations where ISC majors would not be able to earn academic credit as an ISC intern, here are examples:
- A position where a student would be the only communications person within an organization. The position would not qualify for internship credit since there would be no supervision by a professional with those same skills.
- A position where an ISC intern will be supervised by another student. This, obviously, would not be a person who is an ISC professional.
- We typically do not approve sales positions for ISC 399 credit.
- While we recognize that most internships involve some amount of clerical work, we do not offer ISC internship credit for positions where the majority of the student’s time is spent making copies,filing, entering spreadsheet data, answering telephones, or the like. The ISC internship experience must focus on ISC-keyed professional tasks.
We look to the internship site to provide their intern with a dedicated work space and resources appropriate to the internship. At minimum, that includes office or cubicle space, a computer, appropriate software.
We also look to intern supervisors to begin or end their intern's week with a brief status chat. The supervisor offers their view of the intern's development . . . quality of work, personal 'air' of professionalism, tips on areas to improve, etc. It's also a time to discuss work for the week ahead and how to prioritize tasks. The goal for supervisor and intern should be to have a clear work-week plan so the intern's 'on clock' time is always productive.
Our students may not use equipment the ISC Department may have at hand (cameras, recorders, etc.) for internship-related work. [This is because we only have capacity to support our on-campus curriculum. If you are looking for an intern to shoot video, etc., you will need to provide the necessary equipment.]
For prospective internship placement sites, we hope and believe that you will find our students to be enthusiastic, energetic, and eager to apply their skills and learn more about your particular field. We hope that you will benefit from the experience just as much as the students themselves.
To be considered as an ISC internship placement site, please answer the following questions. We will review your proposed intern position with appropriate faculty in the school, let you know of any questions we have, and notify you of the decision that's reached. Where a proposed internship earns approval to host an ISC intern, we'll publicize the internship to our students and add it to our listing of internship sites.*
Each student pursuing an ISC internship must complete a contract with their site supervisor. This contract is based primarily on the position that's been approved. Please answer the following questions in terms of the baseline experience an intern would gain with your company.
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*There are instances where an approved site may be removed from the 'approved' list. The reasons for that may include but not be limited to:
- The site supervisor has been replaced by a person who lacks the initial supervisor's professional credentials.
- The intern's actual experience (including tasks leading to professional, portfolio-caliber work) is different from what was described on the application to host an intern.