Internship – HIST 794

Prerequisites:

Three hours of applied history in appropriate area and 12 hours in major field or permission of Internship Director. Students are responsible for contacting the Internship Director Mack P. Holt at mholt@gmu.edu.   The department must approve all internship placements to insure their suitability to the student’s program.

Required Credit Hours:

All students in the applied history path are required to complete 3 or 6 hours of internship. If the 3-credit internship was selected, then the other 3 credits would be taken in applied history coursework. The 6-hour internship can be taken over two semesters (3 credits per semester) or completed in a single term (6 credits for that semester).

Areas of Work:

An intern will work in one of the five areas of concentration in the Applied History path:

  1. Archives and Records Management
  2. Editing
  3. Museum Work
  4. Historic Preservation
  5. New Media and Information Technology

On-Site Hour and Day Requirements:

On-site hour and day requirements will vary, depending on the requirements of the agency involved.

For 3 credits, a minimum of 160 hours of work at the site will be required (the equivalent of 4 weeks of full-time work for 5 days per week at 8 hours per day).

For 6 credits, a minimum of 320 hours of work at the site will be required (the equivalent of 8 weeks of full-time work for 5 days per week at 8 hours per day).

Internship Supervision:

Each intern will have a faculty adviser and an on-site supervisor who together will be responsible for planning the student’s program and evaluating his/her progress. At the beginning of the internship, the Internship Director will meet with the student and the onsite supervisor. They will agree on the type of work to be carried out during the internship, as well as an “independent project,” which will reflect original research and thinking. This project should culminate in a substantial paper (20 – 30 pages). The agreement worked out will constitute a “contract” to be completed during the course and will be the basis of grading in the course. The contract will include:

Specifications of working hours, readings, independent project, etc.

  1. Dates for monthly meetings with the internship director: In these meetings the student should discuss: work experiences, problems encountered in research, writing, or working with supervisors or the public, progress on the independent project, etc.
  2. Date for at least one on-site visit of the internship director during the course of the internship

On-Site Responsibilities:

The actual work carried out by the student at the agency will vary accordingly to the particular circumstances of the student and agency. In general, however, students should become involved in some aspect of the day-to-day operation of the agency in order to gain an understanding of the value of the work done in the agency, the problems encountered, and the techniques and approaches used to carry out the work. The student will be involved in more than “routine’ tasks; his or her assignment will require the use of historical skills gained in previous graduate courses.

Grading:

Course grade is to be based on:

  1. Written evaluation by work supervisor
  2. Independent project evaluated by Internship Director and work supervisor
  3. Performance in tutorials (including reading assignments)

NOTE: Students eligible to register for an Internship should contact the Internship Director Mack P. Holt for approval. To register, students must contact the Graduate Office at 703-993-1248 to initiate an “Individualized Section Form.” Students must hand-carry the signed form directly to the Registrar’s Office.