Internships at Emerson College
Internships allow students to apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom to a professional setting and develop their skills as students build upon their experiential learning opportunities.
Internships for academic credit must be approved via an application process administered at the Career Development Center and must be approved prior to the start of a student's internship.
Before continuing, please note the following additional policies:
- Emerson students may not participate in a credit-bearing internship at a business owned or operated by a current Emerson faculty or staff member.
- Currently, students may not use Emerson College as a host organization for an internship for credit.
- Students may not receive retroactive credit for internships completed in the past.
- International students must complete internships that align with their major and with academic credit in order to comply with international student visa requirements. Emerson College provides international students with work authorization. This allows employers to offer equal access to domestic and international alike.
Continue reading Emerson’s Internship Policies.
Posting Internships
Employers looking to provide internship opportunities are encouraged to review the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #71 as a start. In addition to meeting federal requirements, potential internship host sites must:
- Provide a complete job description, including a defined beginning and end to the internship experience. This must include desired qualifications.
- Supervise interns with professional staff who have an educational and/or professional background in the internship’s field of experience.
- Connect the responsibilities of the internship with knowledge and skills gained in the classroom.
- Equip interns with the resources, equipment, and facilities required for the intern’s work and learning objectives.
Unpaid Internships & “Volunteer” Internships Statement
It is our expectation that all companies offering internship opportunities to our students should provide monetary compensation in exchange for their contributions to your organization, Students can simultaneously be paid and receive academic credit for an internship.
The Department of Labor mandates that for-profit companies either compensate their intern employees financially or require that they obtain academic credit for the experience. Failure to do so may put your organization at risk for litigation.
Non-Profit companies are not required by law to pay interns. We still strongly encourage those with the financial resources to consider providing paid opportunities.
Unpaid internships create equity issues and put low-income students at a disadvantage.
Internship Requirement Resources
We have three internships for academic credit options.
- 1-Credit Professional Development Experience
- 4-Credit Internship
- 8-Credit Internship
You can find all the information on the Internship for Academic Credit page.