Kutztown University

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Senior Internship – TVR 390

Policies and Procedures

Revised Spring 2006

Table of Contents

Essential Steps for Obtaining Your Internship …………………………………………...    2

Introduction and Purpose …………………………………………………………………   3

University Internship Policies ………………………………………………………….…   3

Who is Eligible …………………………………………………………………………...    3

When to Apply …………………………………………………………………………...    4

How to Apply ………………………………………………………………………........    4

Selecting Internship Locations …………………………………………………………..     5

Application Approval Process …………………………………………………………...    6

Interview ………………………………………………………………………...…….....    7

Registration …………………………………………………………………………....…    8

Faculty Supervision ……………………………………………………………..……….    8

Grading ……………………………………………………………………………...…...    9

Frequently Asked Questions ………………………………………………….………....     9

Waivers of Policies or Procedures ………………………………………………….…… 12

ESSENTIAL STEPS FOR OBTAINING YOUR INTERNSHIP

At this time…                                           Do this…

While being advised for the last                     Fill out the Intent-to-Intern Form

semester of classes before internship            with your advisor.

During the first month of the                       Look for posted notices about the

last semester of classes before internship       mandatory meeting for those who

want to intern.

The meeting date and time for those who      Be there, and take the materials

want to intern                                           distributed by the Internship

Coordinator.

Between the meeting and the                      Consult the binders in the Electronic

deadline listed on the Internship Media Department to find out about

Application Form available approved intern sites.

By the deadline date listed on the                Submit the completed Internship

Internship Application Form                     Application Form and résumé to

the faculty Internship Coordinator.

After being matched with an intern            Arrange for an interview.

site, as indicated on the posted list of          

internship assignments

When advisement appointment lists            Schedule an advisement appointment

are posted on faculty doors (this will          to register for TVR 380 and to fill out

likely be before your interview)                  the University Request to Take an

Internship form.

After a successful interview                        Submit a Report-of-Interview

Form to the Internship Coordinator,

and make sure that a signed

Confirmation Form is submitted by   

the site supervisor to the Internship

Coordinator as soon as possible.

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

TVR 390 (Senior Internship) is a required 12-credit course in which students work full-time for one semester at a cooperating electronic media facility.  The purpose of the course is to provide students with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in their Electronic Media curriculum.

By working under supervision in actual electronic media facilities, students can receive the experience necessary to become effective electronic media staff members.  This realistic on-the-job internship experience is especially valuable for preparing students to enter the job market.

UNIVERSITY INTERNSHIP POLICIES

A.     The internship experience will generally follow the University calendar.

B.     Interns will work at their assigned locations for an average weekly minimum of either 30 hours during the 14 class weeks of the Fall and Spring semesters or 35 hours during the 12 weeks of the Summer internship period. This means that the intern must work for at least 420 hours over a minimum of 14 or 12 weeks, depending on when the internship is taken. The specific work days and times are to be arranged between the location and the intern. The intern is required to attend Senior Seminar (TVR 380, a 2-credit course) once every two weeks as specified in the Master Schedule.

C.     Interns are expected to follow all policies and regulations of their internship locations, provided that doing so will not present a conflict with any policy of the Department of Electronic Media or the University.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE

Electronic Media majors are eligible for the Senior Internship and Senior Seminar only after they have earned senior status (90 credits) and have completed all other Electronic Media courses required to complete their degree. Additionally, they must have earned a minimum 2.0 grade-point-average (GPA) overall, and a minimum grade of “C” in each Electronic Media course taken.

Students may apply if they will have earned 90 credits by the end of the semester of application. However, if they have not earned the required number of credits or GPA prior to the start of their internship semester, their application and placement will be voided. Students in this situation must reapply when they meet the minimum eligibility requirements.

WHEN TO APPLY

Students who have attained junior status (those who have completed 60 credits) are to notify their advisor during their regular advisement session concerning when they are planning to take their internship. The student and the advisor together complete the Intent to Intern form, which is then submitted to the department secretary by the advisor.

Students must apply for TVR 390 (Senior Internship) during the semester prior to the semester in which they wish to intern. Failure to so will result in having to postpone the internship until the following semester.

To intern in the Spring semester, students must apply early in the Fall semester.

To intern during the Summer sessions or in the Fall semester, students must apply early in the Spring semester.

Applications are accepted only up until the due date and time announced at the mandatory meeting held for each group of prospective interns.

HOW TO APPLY

Internships are not granted automatically. Students must complete and submit the required application form, résumé, and any other necessary application materials before they will be permitted to interview for an internship.

A.   Mandatory intern meetings are scheduled during the first month of classes each semester. Notices with meeting dates, times, and locations are posted in the Electronic Media Department shortly after the beginning of the semester. It is the responsibility of each student who wishes to intern to find out the meeting information and to attend the appropriate meeting for the intended internship semester or Summer session, as indicated in the previous section of this handbook.

Unless they present the Internship Coordinator with an excuse recognized as valid in the current edition of The Key, students who fail to attend this meeting will be placed at the bottom of the list for faculty approval, regardless of GPA. (see “Application Approval Process” below)

B.   During the mandatory internship meeting, the faculty Internship Coordinator will provide each student with an application form and instructions for completing it and for composing a résumé.

1.  The internship application should be filled out with due consideration and care.  There is no guarantee that the student’s first choice will be either available or approved. The student must be willing to be placed at any of the locations entered on the application form, regardless of the priority assigned by the student.

2.  Any student who would like to intern at a location not previously used by our department must consult the section below on "Other Locations" for additional information to be submitted. Provided that this necessary information is submitted with the internship application, that location may be listed among the complete list of choices entered on the application.

3.  Students will be given at least two weeks in which to complete the application, prepare a résumé, and submit these and any other required materials to the Internship Coordinator. 

The specific due date and time announced at the meeting will be strictly adhered to. In the absence of documentation of an excuse recognized as valid in the current edition of The Key, any student who fails to submit required materials by the announced deadline will not be permitted to intern during the requested semester. Students are strongly urged not to wait until the last minute to submit their applications.

SELECTING INTERNSHIP LOCATIONS

Approved Locations

The Department of Electronic Media maintains a series of books containing information on approximately 100 intern locations previously approved by the department.  The books are located on the counter in the office, with information divided according to location categories (e.g., broadcast stations, cable companies, advertising agencies, etc.)  A list of all approved locations is available as a helpful starting point in the search for intern sites.

Other Locations

Students are sometimes aware of potential internship locations that have not been approved by the department. Students are not restricted to interning only at the locations in “the books." Should a student wish to intern at a location that has not yet been approved by the department, the procedure below is to be followed in addition to the normal application procedure.

The student must prepare a proposal for adding the location to the list of approved sites. This proposal is to be submitted to the Internship Coordinator by the deadline established for internship applications, and must contain the following components:

A.    An explanation of why the prospective site would be of significant value to the further development of the student’s skills and why it is uniquely different in the experiences it offers, when compared with sites that are already approved.

B.    A letter from the prospective intern location confirming a commitment to take on a full-time intern.  Electronic Media interns are required to work a minimum of 420 hours, as discussed in “University Internship Policies” above, but they must also be permitted to return to campus one day every other week to attend Senior Seminar. This letter must also include the name, title, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the site supervisor.

C.  Additional materials from the prospective location:

1.  A list of the tasks that an intern would be expected to perform.

2.  A list of the equipment at the location to which an the intern would be exposed and, as appropriate, would be able to use during the internship experience.

3.  If applicable, a list of clients who have used the production services of the prospective location.

It is the student's responsibility to make sure that all of the above items are submitted to the Internship Coordinator no later than the deadline for applications, in order to give the department faculty members an adequate amount of time to review the materials. If the required materials are not received by this date, the student will be considered for placement only at a currently approved location. The student also has the option of postponing the internship for a semester to allow for the required materials from the prospective location to be submitted in a timely manner.

Interning at a Current Place of Employment

Since the primary goal of the internship is to provide students with new experiences in a professional electronic media facility, a student will generally not be permitted to intern at the same location where he or she is currently employed or has been employed in the past. Exceptions to this rule are possible only if the proposed internship supervisor can verify in writing that the duties of the intern (and thus the available experiences) would be substantially different from those related to the student’s current or previous employment. In the case of an internship that runs concurrently with a student’s employment, the hours necessary for meeting the internship time requirements must be logged separately and must be worked in addition to the student’s hours as a paid employee.

APPLICATION APPROVAL PROCESS

There is no guarantee that students will receive their first, second or even fifth choice. Students should note that, while full consideration will be given to their selections, the department faculty acts as a whole in this decision process. The faculty members evaluate student choices on the basis of their knowledge of the individual student’s needs, abilities, and initiative in light of the requirements and opportunities at specific internship locations.

A.   After the deadline for receipt of completed applications, résumés, and other necessary documentation has passed, the Internship Coordinator will review the applications and place them in order of highest overall grade point average to lowest grade point average (lowest eligible GPA is 2.0).  A Student who misses the mandatory meeting without providing a valid excuse but meets the submission deadline will be placed at the bottom of the list for faculty consideration, regardless of GPA. The Internship Coordinator will distribute this information to all Electronic Media faculty members for their review. The Coordinator will then schedule a meeting for all department faculty.

B.   The faculty will meet to discuss each student’s application in order of descending overall GPA considering the needs of both the student and the location. If a student's first choice is not approved, the faculty will consider the second choice, etc. All applications will be considered and approved in the order of the highest GPA to the lowest GPA, with the exception of any student in the situation described in “A” above.

It should be clearly understood that a student is matched with and approved for an internship assignment by the Electronic Media faculty – not by the family, friends, or associates of the student. If a student wishes the faculty to consider a particular location because of special circumstances (for instance, the need to be placed near home or other available housing), this should be noted in the appropriate space on the application form. There is no guarantee, however, that the student will be placed at that location.  (see "Frequently Asked Questions" below)

INTERVIEW

A.   After the faculty have approved locations for the interns, the Internship Coordinator will post a list of the student/internship site matches or otherwise notify the applicants of  their approved sites. After obtaining the site supervisor’s name and phone number from the internship books, the student is responsible for arranging an appointment for an interview. All interviews must be conducted by the deadline set by the Internship Coordinator. If there is a problem with meeting this deadline, the student must consult with the Internship Coordinator to discuss appropriate action.

B.   Each student will be required to take a Confirmation Form to the interview location.  If the interview goes well, and the location is willing to take the student, this form is filled out by the site supervisor and returned to the Internship Coordinator either by the site supervisor or by the student. The student must also submit a completed Report-of-Interview Form.

C.   The location is under no obligation to accept the student.  If, after the interview, the location declines to accept the student as an intern, the Internship Coordinator, in consultation with the department faculty, will approve another location. The same procedure for interviewing would then be followed.

D.   Should the student return from the interview and decide that the location is not what was expected, the student is to immediately notify the Internship Coordinator. The Internship Coordinator will then, in consultation with the department faculty, approve a second location for the student. The same procedure for interviewing would again be followed.

E.   The Internship Coordinator will send out confirmation letters to the site supervisor and the intern, notifying them of the start and end dates of the internship, and the dates for meetings of the Senior Seminar. The location may ask the student to begin the internship early. If the intern agrees, and the arrangement meets the requirements for the minimum numbers of hours and weeks of the internship, it will be approved. Otherwise, interns are expected to follow the University calendar.

REGISTRATION

The application and approval process are departmental procedures that are separate and distinct from the University process by which students register for Senior Internship (TVR 390, 12 credits) and Senior Seminar (TVR 380, 2 credits) as University courses. Students must schedule an advisement appointment with their advisors during the time period designated for seniors. During that appointment, the student and advisor will complete a Request to Take an Internship form. If the student will be interning during the Fall or Spring semesters, the advisor will also register the student electronically in TVR 380 at this time.

For those students who will be taking their internship during the Fall or Spring semesters, the advisor will keep the Request to Take an Internship form for processing, and the students need not do anything further.

Students taking their internship during the Summer sessions need to return to the department, as directed by their advisors, to pick up the Request to Take an Internship form with department signatures. The students take this form first to the office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (131 Lytle Hall) for approval, and then to the Registrar’s Office (115 Stratton Administration Center) to register for both TVR 390 and TVR 380, for a total of 14 credits.

FACULTY SUPERVISION

Each intern will be assigned by the Department Chairperson to a specific faculty member for supervision throughout the intern semester. This faculty member may or may not be the Internship Coordinator.  The faculty member to whom the intern is assigned will make periodic appointments to visit with the intern and the site supervisor, together and separately, during the semester.

If an intern has any difficulties or concerns regarding the internship, he or she should consult with the faculty supervisor, who will make every effort to resolve any conflict that might arise. The intern should keep in touch on a regular basis with the faculty supervisor to share experiences and progress. 

GRADING

Grading is based on a number of factors. The location supervisor will complete a performance evaluation form at the end of the semester. This evaluation will be used along with observations made by the faculty supervisor, discussions with the location supervisor, and intern feedback, to determine the final grade. Students should remember that it is the faculty supervisor who assigns the final grade, not the location supervisor.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What if my car breaks down and I miss the application deadline or miss another set deadline?

Immediately contact the Intern Coordinator or Department Chairperson and explain the circumstances to him/her. Don’t wait until the deadline has passed and hope that your explanation will be accepted. The faculty are more than willing to work with responsible students. Keep in mind, however, that students have at least two weeks to hand in application materials. Don’t wait until the last minute!  

Failure to meet deadlines without providing a valid excuse, or failure to follow other policies and procedures will result in your having to postpone your internship for at least one semester. (see “Waivers of Policies or Procedures” below)

Do I get paid for my internship?

The Department of Electronic Media does not require a location to pay an intern for his or her work. Some locations do pay their interns, but most do not. For those locations that do provide payment, the amount and method of pay varies from one location to another. Any arrangements for pay are made directly between the student and the location, and usually involve following procedures prescribed by the location’s Human Resources department.

What about housing?

It is your responsibility to secure housing during the internship. This is an important consideration when selecting the internship locations to include in your application.

Can I intern at a distant location like Florida or California?

Interns must remember that TVR 380 (Senior Seminar) is taken concurrently with TVR 390 (Senior Internship). You realistically should not anticipate interning farther away than you can readily travel once every two weeks to attend Senior Seminar.

Do I have to go to Senior Seminar?

Yes. It is a separate course for which you will receive a grade in addition to the grade for your internship. As with all other courses in our department, class attendance is expected. Since participation is part of your grade for Senior Seminar, attendance is vital to passing. For the occasional instance when the location has you heavily involved in a project and may not want you to miss work, the site supervisor should contact the professor teaching Senior Seminar to discuss the anticipated absence.

What if I have a friend or relative who works for a TV station or some other location and I have already been promised an internship there? Do I still have to go through the motions of the department’s application process?

Yes! Students are placed by the faculty, not by friends or relatives. If there are special factors you would like the faculty to consider when making their decision, these should be indicated on or attached to the application form. Keep in mind that the faculty consider placement of students with the highest GPA first – so you could be assigned to that location only if it is available as an approved site at the point when your application would properly be considered among all the internship applications for that semester and if the faculty decide that the location is the most appropriate of your choices. Any "arrangements" that you make outside the normal site assignment process simply will not be honored by the faculty. Moreover, any location providing such arrangements runs the risk of being removed from the department’s list of approved sites, since our intern placement process should be clearly understood by each site.

If I will have earned more than 90 credits before the internship but my current GPA is slightly below 2.0 (e.g., 1.98), can I still apply for my internship?

Yes, you may apply, but the faculty can only give conditional approval for your internship. If you have not brought your GPA up to the minimally required 2.0 before the start of your scheduled internship semester, you willnot be permitted to intern. Instead, you’ll need to spend at least an additional semester to bring your GPA up to 2.0. This can usually be accomplished by repeating classes in which you received a D or an F. When you reach the point at which you expect to meet the minimum GPA requirement, you may then reapply for an internship, following the normal application procedure.

Should I intern during my first or second senior semester?

That’s your decision. However, because some of our locations do occasionally offer jobs to interns, it’s recommended that you wait until your final semester to serve your internship.

What if I begin my internship and find out part-way through that it's not what I expected or what was promised to me?

The first step is to speak with your site supervisor about your concerns. Many times it's simply a matter of communication. Keep in mind, also, that it will normally take a few weeks for your location to get to know you well enough to feel comfortable assigning you "more challenging" experiences.

If your concerns cannot be resolved by your site supervisor, notify your faculty supervisor. (Since, as mentioned above, interns should be in regular contact with the faculty supervisor, he or she should already be aware of your concerns about the internship experience.) The faculty supervisor will contact the site supervisor to try to resolve the problem.

If your concerns are still not resolved, the faculty supervisor will consult with the Internship Coordinator, and the remainder of the department faculty, to determine if you could be placed at another location for the remainder of the semester. As a last resort, you may be advised to withdraw from the internship and reapply for the following semester. While situations such as this occur infrequently, the importance of being careful with  the location choices on your application cannot be stressed too much.

When should I start looking for internship locations?

It's never too early to begin finding out more about "what's out there." Most students don't really form a clear idea of what they want to do until sometime in their junior or even senior year. The choices continue to grow: corporate, broadcast television or radio, production-houses, cable, sports, news, public relations, etc.  Attend National Broadcasting Society chapter meetings and facility tours, go to guest speaker presentations, visit local facilities on your own. Our intern books (located on the counter in the TV office) are filled with descriptions of close to 100 locations, along with comments on the locations from some of our more recent interns. If you find a site that interests you, talk to a faculty member to find out more about it. If there’s an intern evaluation sheet in the book, give us the name of the student and we'll try to put you in touch with him or her to ask more specific questions.

What if I’d like to “check out” a few locations to determine which one I want to intern at?

That’s no problem. We encourage students to find out as much as possible about locations before they include them among their five choices on the application form. If, however, you’d like to make a personal visit to the location, it’s important that you to make it clear to them that you have not been approved by the department to intern at that location yet, and are looking at other locations as well.  Do not make a commitment to the location, and do not give them the impression that you expect to intern there. Until your application has been processed by the faculty, as discussed earlier, you don’t know where you’ll be approved to interview for an internship.

If I intern during the Summer, will I have to pay more tuition?

During the Spring and Fall semesters,  students pay a flat fee for 12 to 18 credits. Summer courses are billed per credit hour. For the Summer internship, you need to enroll in both TVR 380 and TVR 390, for a total of 14 credits. This means that you would pay 14 times the cost per credit – which is higher than the flat fee charged during the Spring or Fall semesters.

I've heard that if I intern during the Summer I don't graduate until December.

That’s true. Our Summer internships run for 12 weeks – roughly from the beginning of the first Summer session until a few days before the start of the Fall semester. Because the internship ends after the deadline for grades for the Summer sessions, students who intern over the Summer aren’t considered Summer graduates – they actually receive their degrees at the December Commencement. If you complete your internship over the Summer and are interviewing for a job before officially receiving your degree, the Department Chairperson will be happy to provide you with a letter for the prospective employer confirming that you’ve completed all graduation requirements.

What if I work at a facility and would like to do my internship there?

The department recognizes that this situation arises on occasion. Read carefully “Interning at a Current Place of Employment” on page 6.

What if I have other questions?

Should you have a question that has not been addressed in this document, you should speak with either the Internship Coordinator or the Department Chairperson. They will do their best to provide you with the answers. As always, you’re strongly urged not to wait until the last minute before a deadline if you have a problem with some part of the internship application process.

WAIVERS OF POLICIES OR PROCEDURES:

All information contained in this document should be considered by the students to be the policies and procedures of the Department of Electronic Media regarding Senior Internship. Failure to follow these policies and procedures may require that a student postpone an internship for one or more semesters.

Students may present a written request to the faculty for a waiver of a policy or procedure contained in this document. Any such request must be received by the Internship Coordinator in enough time for it to be circulated to the department faculty members for adequate discussion before a decision is reached. The request must specify the policy or procedure for which a waiver is being sought, and must contain a detailed justification as to why it is appropriate in this case for the policy or procedure in question to be waived. Each request for a waiver is considered on its own merits, and the fact that a request has been submitted in no way guarantees that a waiver will be granted.