Academic Internships

Academic internships allow students to combine a credit-bearing independent study with outside, non-paid work experience during the fall or spring semester. Typically, students work 10-12 hours per week with a business or non-profit organization. A strong, rigorous academic component must complement the work experience. A faculty member advises the project and evaluates the student's work.

The academic component of the internship is as important as the job itself. The student works with both an agency sponsor and a Brown faculty member, and must read, write, and research as much as for any other class. The internship can be a case study for a course, or it can be an experience to which a student wants to bring an academic perspective. An academic internship involves intense work, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Academic internships require the preparation of an extensive, formal proposal that maps out the work to be done in the internship and the analytical issues to be addressed in the course. The Curricular Resource Center in Rhode Island Hall has a variety of materials to assist students with the design of an appropriate internship proposal. Students may also contact the CRC for pertinent application deadlines for academic internships.