• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 
1
 
PS 399 Summer (8-Week) 2009
Political Science Internship Program
Instructor: Dr. Christopher S. Rice Telephone: 257-7030Office: 1649 Patterson Office Tower Email: christopher.rice@uky.eduOffice Hours: By Appointment Twitter: @ricetopherWebsite:http://ukpsinternships.pbwiki.com/  
INTRODUCTION
The University of Kentucky
ʼ
s Department of Political Science encourages undergraduates to learn aboutthe political system through hands-on experience. Students often respond to this encouragement byseeking internships within government agencies, political campaigns, law firms, and the like. However,simply working at a job, even a professionally enriching job, does not necessarily contribute to a liberalarts education. On-site supervisors can teach the skills needed to carry out necessary tasks, but there
ʼ
sno guarantee that supervisors will encourage interns to look beyond the job at hand and consider how itfits within the political and legal system.The Political Science Department
ʼ
s internship course, PS 399, therefore provides students with anopportunity to embed early work experiences within the liberal arts education they are pursuing. To earncredit, students not only must serve in a job with some connection to political science, they also must readsocial-science scholarship related to the internship. They communicate regularly with the InternshipDirector through a journaling project – sometimes to seek advice or guidance, but always with theexpectation that they will show they are thinking abstractly or scientifically about the job and itstechniques. They end the experience by writing a reflective paper connecting their specific job(s) to thescholarly readings.Thus, in addition to (1) the skills learned on the job and (2) the abstract knowledge gained about how that job fits into the political system, the course has a third learning outcome, which is that (3) studentsbecome aware of how, as professionals, they can do a job yet still think critically about the work they areperforming.
ELIGIBLE INTERNSHIPS
Students may receive academic credit for a wide variety of internship placements. The Department ofPolitical Science assists students in taking advantage of internship opportunities and provides academicfoundations for the internship work through PS 399. However, the department generally does not “place”students in internships.
Each student enrolled in PS 399 is responsible for finding and arranginghis/her own internship
. The most common political science internships fit into these categories:
•
 
Government Entities and Related Associations
(e.g., LFUCG City Council, Mayor
ʼ
s office,U.S. Senator or Representative, Governor
ʼ
s office, FBI, U.S. State Dept., Council of StateGovernments)
•
 
Government agencies
(whether local, state, or federal, including legislative staff)
•
 
Political parties
 
•
 
Political campaigns
•
 
Community organizations
, interest groups or other policy-related organizations (e.g., KFTC,MACED, BIPPS, Urban League, ACLU, non-profit research groups)
 
 
2
 
•
 
Judicial institutions
(whether local, state, or federal)
•
 
Law firms
and other legal organizations (e.g. county attorney
ʼ
s office)
•
 
Media
 
organizations
, if primarily writing on government, politics, policy or political activism
•
 
Assisting a
 
political scientist,
whether professor or advanced graduate student, performingresearchThe student
ʼ
s internship supervisor/employer will be asked to participate in the course by filling out aMemorandum of Agreement at the start of the semester and by completing a small amount of paperworkat the end of the semester, usually just prior to or during the last week of classes. To be eligible, aninternship therefore must meet one other implicit requirement:
The employer or supervisor must knowthat the intern will be receiving course credit for the work performed and must be willing tocooperate.
Students may earn up to six (6) credit hours in PS 399 during a given semester, for a total of no morethan 12 credit hours of the 120 required to graduate. The number of potential earned credits in a givensemester depends on how many hours the student will be working at the internship, as well as on thescope of the academic work the student is willing to perform:
1 CreditHour 2 CreditHours3 CreditHours4 CreditHours5 CreditHours6 CredithoursAverageHours/Week 6 12 18 24 30 35-40(full-time)Total HoursWorked/Semester 48 96 144 192 240 288+# of 500 wordBook Reviews1 1 2 2 3 3# Journal Entries 4 4 8 8 12 12Final Paper 
 
Length500 words 1000words1500words2000words2500words3000wordsBook Review #1DUEJuly 9,2009July 9,2009July 2,2009July 2,2009June 25,2009June 25,2009Book Review #2DUE N/A N/A July 30,2009July 30,2009July 9,2009July 9,2009Book Review #3DUE N/A N/A N/A N/A July 30,2009July 30,2009Final Paper Proposal DUEJuly 23,2009July 23,2009July 23,2009July 23,2009July 23,2009July 23,2009Final Paper DUE August 6,2009August 6,2009August 6,2009August 6,2009August 6,2009August 6,2009
Internships can begin in May before the Summer II semester starts and can end before the middle ofAugust. The Internship Director, at his/her discretion, therefore may count work performed in the weeksbefore the Summer II semester starts when determining the number of credit hours for which a student iseligible (assuming that the student completes the academic course requirements necessary to earn suchcredit). However, students who start their Summer internship early need to discuss this situation with andobtain the approval of the Internship Director. The University of Kentucky only gives formal approval tothe Learning Contract and planned course of study at the start of the Summer II semester.
 
 
3
 
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Undergraduates must follow several UK and departmental rules to receive PS 399 academic credit (thiscourse is offered Pass/Fail only). Since these rules add requirements on top of those demanded by otherdepartments and the UK Office of Career Services, it is important that you read, understand, and adhereto the following instructions. The required forms are attached at the end of this packet The LearningContract may also be downloaded from the Career Services website(
http://www.uky.edu/CareerCenter/internship.htm
 
).In order to earn academic credit for their internship, each student must work on
meaningful,professional-level tasks
in one of the internship categories listed above while enrolled in PS 399. Eachinternship supervisor will be asked to complete an evaluation form for the student intern. This evaluationform will comprise a major component of the final Pass/Fail grade, in addition to the Internship Director
ʼ
sassessment of student learning exhibited through the following
academic 
course requirements:1.
 
The Working Journal
: Each student enrolled in PS 399 is required to keep a working journal forthe duration of the project.
Interns should not reveal confidential information about the workthey are doing.
Instead, they must outline in general terms the kind of tasks they are performing.The journal should be focused on
critical events
experienced during the course of yourinternship and must include
interviews with at least two individuals
who perform different roleswithin or related to the organization for which you are interning. You should be able to identifyyour own role and utilize readings and relevant political science theory and research to examineyour internship experiences. The student must use the journal to provide evidence that they arethinking critically about how their experiences fit into “the big picture” (e.g., ethical systems, socialrelations, professional norms, the workings of the political and legal system, etc.). This reflectioncan come in the form of questions, generalizations, or specific observations. The number ofentries required for your journal will vary according to the number of credit hours for which youare enrolled (see table above). Entries in your journal should be approximately 250-300 wordseach, and may be supplemented with pictures, video, PowerPoints or other multimedia objects.Students will meet the journal requirement by creating a private (meaning the blog is onlyaccessible by the Internship Director and the student) blog on the Blogger or Wordpress.comblogging services. Please check the UK Political Science Internship Wiki(
http://ukpsinternships.pbwiki.com/ 
) for information on how to do this under the “Journal” tab.Your Journal URL must be provided to the Internship Director by
Thursday, June 11, 2009
.2.
 
Required Reading
: The student must read scholarship in social science related to theinternship. The specific books and articles are to be selected by the student with guidance andapproval from the Internship Director. The quantity of reading depends on the number of credithours (see table above). Students are encouraged to discuss what they are reading with theInternship Director (either in-person, by email or on the student
ʼ
s journal), although suchdiscussion is not mandatory. To complete this requirement, the student will write a 500-wordanalysis of each required book (see table above) and post this in an entry to their working journal.Note that this analysis does not substitute for that week
ʼ
s regular journal entry. See the tableabove for the deadlines for posting these to your journal. Recommended books for mostinternship subject areas are available on the UK Political Science Internship Wiki(
http://ukpsinternships.pbwiki.com/ 
).3.
 
Final Paper
: The student must submit a final paper of a specified word count (see table above),which should be word-processed and published to a Page on the student
ʼ
s Working Journal by
Thursday, August 6, 2009
. The final paper should focus on the relevant learning aspects ofyour work, and as such should be primarily analytical rather than merely descriptive. The papermust connect the scholarly readings to the hands-on experience in some fashion. For example, astudent might (a) illustrate points made in the readings with personal examples, (b) criticize the
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...