Internship Program

Contact

If you are interested in enrolling in the internship program in English or need to set up a meeting, please fill out this brief form to get the process started. Should you have any questions about the program, please contact Dr. Mark Alan Mattes at mark.mattes@louisville.edu.

Overview

The English Department’s internship program is designed to grant students college credit for apprentice work in a field that has clear connections with their English degree. In order to enroll in the internship program for credit towards your English degree, you must meet the following prerequisites:

  • be a declared English major***
  • have accumulated at least 45 credit hours by the start of the semester in which you are enrolled in ENGL 450/555
  • have completed at least 6 credit hours in English beyond ENGL 102/105 by the start of the semester in which you are enrolled in ENGL 450/555
  • have a GPA of 2.5 or better (cumulative or major)

*** Please note that while English minors are welcome to enroll in the internship program for general credit, internship course credit does not count towards fulfillment of the English minor requirements unless exceptional circumstances occur and a formal petition is approved by the department. Also, in rare cases, students who are not declaring an English degree are able to enroll in our program, provided that they have met the other prerequisites and have gained approval from the program director. Please reach out to discuss these possibilities.

Work in technical writing, business writing, publishing, grant writing, editing, public relations, education, marketing, film, broadcasting, law, museums, and libraries--to name some possibilities--can provide experience reflecting the goals of the English department’s undergraduate internship program. As long as the internship work engages the transferable skills of English studies, what the work is and where one does the work is flexible.

Earning U of L Credit

Internship credit on your transcript can be a very useful credential. To earn U of L credit for an internship, you will need to take English 450 or English 555-CUE concurrently. In addition to the work that you do for the internship, you will have to complete academic work documenting and reflecting on it. Students in the program gain three credit hours for doing an internship.

Gaining credit entails two sets of requirements. First, the student must complete at least 40 hours of work for their employer/supervisor during the semester, after which the onsite supervisor will provide a written evaluation of the student's performance. Second, the student must complete 8-10 work logs, a final paper, and a portfolio representative of the kinds of work done as an intern, to be completed in consultation with the internship program director. With English 450 and 555, the process is very much like taking an independent study course, with collaboration, in this case, between student intern, site supervisor, and internship program director.

English 450 is available to all English students who have completed at least 60 hours in their degree program. English 555-CUE is available to those who have completed 90 hours. To enroll in English 450 or 555, you must receive the internship program director’s written endorsement. They will be the official course instructor who confers your grade.

For more information about English 450 & English 555, including assignment and assessment details, please consult the course syllabus.

Current Opportunities

The department works directly with community and institutional partners in order to develop unique opportunities for English students who enroll in the internship program. Recent successful placements include positions with Louisville Story Program, Louisville Literary Arts, UofL Archives & Special Collections, the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, the Collaborative for Teaching & Learning, Thumbprint Consulting, and the University Writing Center, just to name a few. We also work directly with partners who facilitate independently-established internship programs in order to actively recruit English students for these tried-and-true placements. These partners include Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs, Teach for America, the University Press of Kentucky, and others.

If you are interested in enrolling in the internship program, and if one or more of the opportunities listed below strike your interest, please contact the program director, Dr. Mark Alan Mattes. After discussing your qualifications for the internship program, your potential fit for these openings, and how you might integrate these particular internships into the requirements for English 450 and/or English 555, the internship director can facilitate direct introductions to the onsite supervisors who have so generously worked with the department to make these positions available to our program enrollees.

Partners with open positions for 2024-25. Calls for applicants will be posted throughout February and March. If a CFA is listed as forthcoming but you'd like to learn more in the meantime, please reach out!

Backside Learning Center

Collaborative for Teaching & Learning

Frazier History Museum

Kentucky Center for African American Heritage

Louisville Book Festival

Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture

Louisville Magazine (CFA forthcoming)

Louisville Story Program

Teach for America Ignite Fellowship

Thumbprint Consulting

University Press of Kentucky (additional instructions here)

UofL Archives and Special Collections

UofL English Social Media Committee

UofL University Writing Center

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UofL Commonwealth Center for Humanities & Society (Spring 2025 Only)

Miracle Monocle (Spring 2025 Only)

  • Miracle Monocle is an award-winning literary journal housed at the University of Louisville and staffed by undergraduate and graduate interns in the Spring. Together, we create an issue of the digital journal and work on a print anthology. Students interested in earning course credit while also receiving hands-on training in the field of editing and publishing may contact the faculty editor of the journal, Dr. Sarah Anne Strickley: sarah.strickley@louisville.edu.

Placement

If you have landed an internship already, congratulations! If you are interested in receiving college credit for your internship, please get in touch with the program director right away to assess whether your position qualifies for credit and begin the onboarding process. Please note that we can accommodate "late add" enrollments if you've already started a qualifying internship. Reach out to see if your current placement is a good fit!

If you have an internship site in mind, contact the program director to determine if your position complies with program guidelines. The internship should not simply be a job you are already doing for which you decide to gain college credit. It is often the case that the intern employer is an off-campus institution, although there are always exceptions!

From time to time, the department receives queries from businesses, government agencies, media outlets, non-profits, and other organizations seeking interns, and these opportunities will be publicized on the English Majors and Minors Distribution List and on this web page. Sometimes students can work with a company or organization to define a need that an internship can fill.

In addition to the "Current Opportunities" listed above, please consult the following leads and resources to help you identify potential positions and build connections with community partners:

Onboarding Forms

Before being approved for enrollment in 450 or 555, you must meet with the Internship Program Director, receive approval of your internship for course credit, and complete and submit the following forms in concert with your on site supervisor and the Internship Director:

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT INTERN AGREEMENT (To be completed and submitted by the student prior to the internship.)

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (To be completed by the Onsite Supervisor and student prior to the internship.)

WORK AGREEMENT (To be completed by the Faculty Supervisor, Onsite Supervisor and student prior to the start of the internship.)