Internships in Political Science at Truman State University Kirksville, MO 63501

Internships allow students to learn in applied settings. At Truman, students may participate in a formal internship program, or they may seek to set up their own internship.
 

The formal internship program is with the Missouri General Assembly. In Missouri, the General Assembly meets each spring. This of course structures when a student may partake of this opportunity. We encourage students interested students to plan this internship for their junior year.
 

The informal internship opportunities depend upon the student's ability to identify and line up an appropriate position. Commonly, this might be in a governmental office, such as working with a city manager or a secretary of state, or perhaps in a law office. We have had students with connections that open doors to internships with federal judges, and we have had students who have knocked upon those doors to setup their own internship.

As the purpose of the internship is to provide a learning experience, there is oversight to the internship experience. In the Missouri General Assembly internship, this occurs through weekly classes held on-site by Truman faculty. For the informal internships, a faculty member needs to approve the placement- helping to assure that what you are learning at the internship site is something that Truman State values- and will visit the work site a couple of times to speak with you and your supervisor. Dr. Vorkink is the person to see for approval of an internship opportunity.

The usual minimum credit for an approved internship will be nine credit hours, although fifteen credit hours is very common. Of these hours, three are assigned a letter grade. The remainder are, in this world that disdains the word failure, given credit or no credit.

Of the 15 hours, up to six are counted in the Required Support, and the remaining are listed as free electives (not political science electives).

Note: internship hours do count toward the 63 hours that one must have in liberal arts and sciences courses.

The accounting of the hours means that it will be worthwhile for students considering an internship to plan in advance:
"How can I go to Jefferson City if I haven't fulfilled my BA language hours?" Sacre bleu.
 

 For further information on internships, please contact a political science faculty member. While Dr. Young and Dr. Vorkink have been involved in the Jefferson City experience, any faculty might have ideas or contacts for the informal internships.
 

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last modified 18 August 2001