Academic Internship Orientation Academic Reflection Of Your Internship Experience

What Is An Academic Internship? An academic internship is any carefully monitored work or service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what she or he is learning through the experience. Academic credit is earned for the experience. The internship is overseen by a faculty or staff member at the University of Memphis and by a designated representative at the internship site.

What’s the difference? Part-time Job Great source of income, limited new learning opportunities generally. Academic Internship Purpose is to learn something new, acquire new skills and knowledge for future job preparation.

The Learning Experience Learning can come from many different sources:  The work assignments  The work environment  The work team  The community partners  Events that occur during your internship experience

Get Prepared To Learn Be Open To New Experiences Start With A Great Learning Attitude Learn As Much As You Can Anticipate Your Experience Be Open To Feedback Become A Keen Observer

Your Site Supervisor and Feedback  Feedback is how we learn—don’t be afraid of it!  If you’re unsure, ask for feedback!  Learn from the feedback— if you’ve made a mistake, learn from the mistake and excel in that activity next time!

Academic Reflection Reflect Upon Your Experience and Ask Yourself These Questions: What did I learn through this experience? How have my previous courses prepared me for this? What would I do differently if I could repeat this experience based on my new knowledge?

Your Academic Portfolio  A Summary Of What You’ve Learned—For Now and For The Future  Use The Outline In Your Internship Orientation Packet To Guide You  Sample Student Portfolio

Getting Started  Learning Goals—What Do I Hope To Accomplish?  Connecting Your Coursework To Your Internship  Internship Site Research— check the website, what does your employer provide to the campus or the community?

Learning About Yourself Career Assessments Does this experience help you know more about your future goals? services/Focus 2www.memphis.edu/career services/Focus 2 Career Preparation Update your resume with your new skills, include in your portfolio Ask your site supervisor for a future reference

Learning About The Experience Portfolio—1-2 page typed summary  Evaluate what skills you’ve acquired  The new knowledge you’ve obtained  The “soft skills” you’ve learned-teamwork, etiquette, culture, communication and more!

Journaling and Time Log Time Logs—Keep track of your hours; it will be too difficult to do at the end—sample time logs in your packet. Personal Journal—Keep notes of what you learn in a personal journal. You’ll be able to recall experiences easier for your summary at the end.

Program Evaluations Using the forms provided, gather evaluations from:  Your faculty advisor (at the end)  Your internship site supervisor (at the end)  Your personal evaluation—midterm and final Copies of form in your packet, Mrs. Tuberville for electronic forms to submit.

Using This Experience In The Future Take Your Portfolio To Future Interviews for internships and Jobs, Scholarship Interviews Show What You’ve Learned—include photos or project samples; demonstrate your experience creatively! Save on a DVD—you can keep it easily and share with future faculty and employers

Resources Available Office of Academic Internships Career Services The Internship Team Members serviceswww.memphis.edu/career Faculty Advisor

Remember This Is A Learning Experiences “Education is revelation that affects the individual” Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 1780 “It gives meaning to everything you have learned and makes practical sense of something you’ve known as theoretical.” Student Intern Reflection

An Internship Experience…  Will Be What You Make It  Do Your Best and Make It A Great Experience!