Internship Program
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 major. To be eligible for a departmental internship, you must:
- be a declared English major
- have accumulated at least 60 hours
- have a GPA of 3.0 or better
Work in technical writing, business writing, publishing, grant writing, editing, public relations, marketing, broadcasting, law, museum and library archives and acquisitions--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 an English major, 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, which requires at least 40 hours of work on site during the semester (approx. 4 hrs/wk).
The course requirements also include ten reflective weekly logs, a final research paper, and a portfolio representative of the kinds of work done as an intern, as well as a written evaluation from the site supervisor. 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 faculty coordinator.
English 450 is for majors who have completed 60 hours in their degree program. English 555-CUE is for those who have completed 90 hours. To enroll in English 450 or 555, you must receive the internship coordinator’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.
Placement
If you have landed an internship already, congratulations! If you are interested in receiving collge credit for your internship, please get in touch with the program director right away to assess whether your positon qualifies for credit and begin the onboarding process.
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 most often the case that the intern employer is an off-campus institution, although there are always exceptions!
The English department traditionally maintains a bulletin board with information about internship opportunities, across from room 320 in the Bingham Humanities Building. 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 Major Distribution List, the department's social media channels, and on this webpage. Sometimes students can work with a company or organization to define a need that an internship can fill. Please also consult the UofL career center, which maintains a database of internship opportunities.
Current Opportunities
Louisville Story Program (Posted 5.16.23)
The Louisville Story Program is accepting applications for an undergraduate or graduate intern to assist their work on several upcoming publications and community projects. The Louisville Story Program is a literary arts outreach nonprofit and publisher that provides historically underrepresented Louisvillians with the tools and resources required to tell the stories of their lives in their own words and document their communities from the inside out. Currently LSP is working on an archive and searchable database documenting Louisville's rich Black gospel music community. The work will culminate in a 3CD box set and hardbound book documenting this musical legacy.
Duties and skill-building experiences of this unpaid internship may include historical research, interview transcription, editing of interview materials, publication assistance, data entry in the gospel archive, as well as operations support with retail outreach and fulfillment, content creation, and data evaluation.
You can learn more about our work at: https://louisvillestoryprogram.org
Louisville Story Program will select one intern each semester beginning in the summer of 2023 through the spring of 2024. To learn more about the position, or to apply, please contact Joseph Manning at joe@louisvillestoryprogram.org. Applicants should submit a brief cover letter speaking to the interests, skills, and experiences that they will bring to the position, as well as a one-page resume.
Contact
Should you have questions about the program or need to set up a meeting, please contact Dr. Mark Alan Mattes at mark.mattes@louisville.edu.
Onboarding and Internship Forms
Before being approved for enrollment in 450 or 555, you must meet with the Internship 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.)
