Internships

In keeping with the mission of our university, we are committed to helping students develop strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills and making them professionally competitive. We believe co-op, internship, individual study, and research experiences can help students achieve these goals. The process of utilizing these opportunities for EENG 4097 academic credit is outlined below. There are slight differences depending on the type of experience (internship vs. research for example), and these variations are outlined individually.

The College of Engineering has the following policies regarding EENG 4097 academic credit

• No more than three hours of academic credit will be given.
• Academic credit will not be given retroactively.
• For individuals currently working within an organization, no academic credit will be given for an existing functional area experience.
• Semesters are defined as Fall, Spring, and Summer (consisting of Summer I and Summer II).
• The student, advisor, and employer (for internships) are responsible for creating a course proposal and syllabus complete with the following:
  • Proposal - A detailed overview of the internship including responsibilities, tasks, timeline, and deliverables. Deliverables may include projects, presentations, completed design, functional prototype, or areas of learned expertise. Some aspects of the internship must extend beyond normal job duties but must benefit the employer and be under their oversight.
  • Syllabus – Can fit the standard COE syllabus template but must include learning objectives, timeline, and performance metrics.
• This information must be submitted to the Dean of COE for review, and enrollment in EENG 4097 is at the discretion of the Dean.
• The learning objectives MUST be significantly different from the learning objectives of any courses listed in the catalog in order to gain academic credit.
• Students will be required to turn in an end of course report to document the course activities. Other academic assignments may be required such as work journals, prototype demonstrations, oral presentations or a combination of any or all of these.

To request credit for research, the student should:

• Contact an EENG advisor to sponsor the research and help coordinate academic documentation as outlined above. The student can propose an independent research project or ask to participate in a faculty research effort. Faculty participation is at their discretion.

WTAMU Career Services Office can aid students in this process by:

• Assist students to develop a résumé, polish their interviewing skills and start a placement file.
• Coordinate with an EENG advisor to sponsor the internship and help process academic documentation as outlined above.
• Once an internship is approved for credit, the career services office can help interns complete the following activities. These are typically incorporated in the syllabus for the class. Documenting these activities justifies grades and ensures a quality learning experience.

1. Learning Agreement Form- This is completed at the beginning of the placement between the student and employer. A written Learning Agreement helps the student know what is expected, provides an opportunity to tailor the internship to an individual student, and ensures students are completing major-related work assignments. Our Learning Agreement form is available online here
2. Regular email updates- The internship syllabus requires the student to send regular email updates over the internship. Students are prompted to answer the following questions. These questions help students think about how the internship relates to their classes and career goals.
   1. What were your job duties, assignments for this week?
   2. What is something new you learned about this career field this week?
   3. How could you have done your job better this week? (For example, Do I need additional knowledge of training? Could I have worked better with my co-workers, supervisors, or customers? Etc.)
   4. If you were in charge of this department this week, what would you do differently? What things would you do the same? Why?
   5. Are your job assignments helping you in your studies at WTAMU? Why or why not?
   6. As of this week, is this position confirming your career choice or causing you to rethink what you want to do after graduation? Why?
   7. What was the most important thing you learned about yourself and your abilities in the context of this work experience this week?
3. On-Site Visit- This visit provides a good picture of student activities along with an opportunity to develop a strong relationship with the employer.
4. Evaluations- Students and employers are asked to provide evaluations. The employer shares their evaluation with the student. We want students to receive constructive feedback from employers to learn as much as possible from the experience. The employer and student evaluations are available online The employer and student evaluations are available online here. At the end of the semester, employer and student evaluations will be sent out and turned in at the career services office. Copies will be sent to the faculty