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 (see notes and exceptions below):
- 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 some 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 45 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 placements include positions with Louisville Story Program, UofL Archives & Special Collections, the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, Thumbprint Consulting, the Envirome Institute, and UofL Office of Communications, 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 (Updated 11.7.24)
Backside Learning Center - Rolling Applications
English Department Social Media Internship - Filled for SP25
Filson Historical Society - Summer 2025 application opens in Spring 2025
Frazier History Museum - Rolling Applications
Kentucky Center for African American Heritage - Rolling Applications
Kentucky Historical Society - Summer Opportunities
Kentucky Refugee Ministries - Rolling Applications - Specific position descriptions here
Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture - Filled for SP25
Louisville Story Program - Spring 2025 Open
Speilburg Literary Agency - 2025 application TBP
Teach for America Ignite Fellowship - Spring 2025 Open
Thumbprint Consulting - Spring 2025 Open
UofL Archives and Special Collections Internship - Filled for SP25
W.W. Norton College Publishing Sales - Rolling Applications
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UofL Commonwealth Center for Humanities & Society - General Information - Filled for Spring 2025
- CCHS actively works with community partners to place interns. Recent placements include positions at the Frazier History Museum, the Filson Historical Society, the Louisville Free Public Library, the Portland Museum, Locust Grove, Cave Hill Heritage Foundation, the American Printing House, and others. English students are very successful competitors for these placements! While many of these partner organizations facilitate internship programs in their own right, applicants working through CCHS have historically received $500 stipends. Applications for spring placements will open during the fall semester. In the meantime, you find out more about CCHS' facilitation of internship placements and their community partners here.
Miracle Monocle (Spring 2025 application opens in Fall 2024)
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:
- Additional partners with whom English students have been placed include Louisville Courier-Journal; Louisville Magazine; Kentucky Department of Education; Speed Art Museum; Louisville Public Media; Louisville Metro TV; Louisville Free Public Library; Mightily Advertising; Life in Abundance International; Live Nation Entertainment; as well as local law firms, marketing agencies, production companies, and others.
- The UofL career center maintains a database of internship opportunities.
- Finally, please consult this selected list of community and institutional partners. Many of these entities have standing internship programs. Others may be a good fit but may require a direct contact and meet-and-greet to figure out if an internship that harnesses training in English is a possibility.
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.)
