The Management & Administration internship is an alternative capstone experience to a research project in the Bachelor of Science in Management & Administration program. It allows students to view the various aspects of their academic experience in the context of an ongoing business or nonprofit organization.
Internship Guidelines
1. Students are responsible for arranging their own internship
2. Internships will be arranged only with an approved business or nonprofit organization relevant to the student's career aspirations.
3. While the internship need not take place over the entire semester, students must work a total of 97.5 hours, which equates to an average of 6.5 hours over 15 weeks, in addition to equivalent class time of 1.5 hours per week. A total of two internship placements may be used to accumulate required hours.
4. The internship is expected to provide the student with hands-on experience that helps them develop knowledge and skills relevant to their own career aspirations.
5. Students must have professional level supervision at the work site while also reporting to the MGNT 4900 instructor. The supervisor should also have at least 5 years of meaningful work experience relevant to the substantive area of internship.
6. The nature of the internship should expose the student to practical application of at least three of the BSMA core areas of management, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, quantitative analysis, economics, or management information systems.
7. Before the end of the third week of the semester, students should complete an internship prospectus which should include the following components:
a. A description of the organization for which they will be working
b. The name and position of their supervisor
c. The nature of the work which the internship entails
d. A set of learning objectives, developed in consultation with both the internship supervisor and the MGNT 4900 instructor. Ideally the learning objectives will relate the internship to at least three of the core areas as specified above.
e. A tentative internship work schedule.
f. Statement of whether the position is paid or unpaid and, if paid, specify salary or stipend amount. See additional notes for unpaid internships below
8. Student must keep a time log of all hours worked that includes a description of activities and an end of the week summary identifying objectives addressed.
9. The student will meet with the MGNT 4900 faculty coordinator and/or class for an equivalent of 1.5 hours each week.
10. The on-site supervisor will provide an evaluation of student's performance to the MGNT 4900 instructor in the middle and at end of student's active service period. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they are evaluated twice during their internship at both of these points; the faculty coordinator may utilize this as element in calculating course grade.
11. Both a written report and an oral presentation summarizing the internship experience and relating it to the academic content of the Management and Administration program will be required of each student for completion of the internship and assignment of academic credit; form and extent of the written project and oral presentation will be determined during the course of the semester
Unpaid Internships
In addition to the above, all unpaid internships supported by Gordon State College should meet the following six criteria established by the U.S. Department of Labor as "fair hiring practice":
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
Internship Resources
Blank Timelog (.docx)