School of Communication Internship Requirements

Washington, D.C. offers communication majors many exciting opportunities to supplement their classroom learning with hands-on experiences. As a communication major, you may use only one internship for credit toward your degree. An undergraduate may receive credit as a senior only. Graduate students usually undertake their internship toward the end of their program. However, due to the large number of internships available, many students will try a variety of experiences throughout their programs even though they do not receive credit for them.

Students may only do one three credit internship for credit in Communication. It may be done during the senior year or after completing 9 credits as a graduate student.

The School of Communication revised internship for credit course offerings effective with the Fall 2007 semester. As of Fall 2007 senior-level SOC students that meet the COMM-491 prerequisites are eligible to earn credit for their internship. This change has eliminated COMM-391 as an internship credit option for students.

The prerequisites for COMM-491 are:
Minimum 2.5 overall gpa
Public Communication students must complete - COMM-337, COMM-346, COMM-380
Journalism students must complete- COMM-385 or COMM-425
Film and Visual Media students must complete- COMM-434 or COMM-523

The proposal DOES NOT eliminate or limit the number of internships a student can have. Instead, it raises the bar for the one internship that will count towards a student's major and will appear on their transcript. Students should have completed significant coursework in their major before undertaking an internship for academic credit. The internship experience should reinforce and build on what they have already learned in the classroom, i.e. the practical experience should complement the academic program in a meaningful way

If a student has another internship offering in his/her junior year or during the summers, he /she can take the internship as unpaid or paid, and not-for-credit. Any internship, though, can and should be included in a resume.

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Sample List of Internships

Here are a few examples of the organizations where SOC students had internships during the past year:
• ABC News "Nightline"
• CNN
• Discovery Communication
• The Smithsonian
• The Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia
• The National Education Association
• The Washington Post
• National Geographic Society
• The White House
• Ketchum Communication
• Walt Disney Company
• Women in Film and Video
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• The Kamber Group (political and public relations consulting)
• USA Today
• Chicago Tribune
• Gannett News Service
• Voice of America

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