School of Languages, Cultures, and RaceInternships and ResearchCAS 497 Internship

CAS 497: Internship

Internships provide  students with an opportunity to obtain academic credit for experiential activities as a paid or unpaid intern in business, education, non-profit, industry, or government organizations.

CAS 497 is a variable credit course (2-16 credits) and may be repeated for credit, with a maximum of 16 hours. Junior standing (60 credits hours) is required. A maximum of 6 credits may be applied to the major degree program.

The goal of the internship program is to provide opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in professional work environments related to their work and career interests. However, making a solid connection from a student’s theoretical/academic foundation to other aspects of their life, such as employment and careers, is extremely important and gives more meaning to both areas of endeavor.  Apart from the hours spent working as an intern, assignments in this course are designed to allow students to explore and define this relationship by reflecting and analyzing the experience, leading to conclusions that will make their academic and pre-professional training meaningful and productive.

Internship Coordinator Contact Info

Laurie Heustis, Internship and Experiential Learning Coordinator
heustis@wsu.edu
509-335-8713
CUE 502

The internship course is open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) working toward a cross-disciplinary degree (BA in Humanities, BA in Social Sciences, or Bachelor of Science). Students pursuing programs in the college that do not have internship courses in their department or school, or students who want to pursue an internship in another discipline, may be admitted with instructor’s permission.  All students work with an on-site internship supervisor who must submit an intern evaluation to the course supervisor at the end of the program, as part of the course requirements. In all cases, students must have at least a 2.0 cumulative WSU GPA.

Internship Learning Goals

  • To expose students to a thorough and integrated study of social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, the arts, life and physical sciences, and other related disciplines as appropriate to the degree pursued, that will allow them to develop a deep, broad, diverse, and trans-disciplinary perspective and understanding.
  • To expose students to a diversity of ways to Integrate and synthesize knowledge from multiple sources.
  • To help students develop means of expressing concepts, propositions, and beliefs in coherent, concise and technically correct forms appropriate to their personal and professional goals.
  • To help students think, react, and work in imaginative ways stimulated by a higher degree of disciplinary synergies that will promote trans-disciplinary innovation, and divergent thinking.

Ready to enroll – here’s how:

  • Talk to your Humanities, Social Science, Science, or major department advisor about how CAS 497 fits into your degree plan.
  • Find an Internship.  Internships must be identified and obtained by the student,
  • The student must set up the internship/course with the internship coordinator prior to the beginning of the semester.
  • After the applicable forms have been filled out and returned, the student will be enrolled in CAS 497 for the appropriate credit(s), and all course interaction, content delivery, and assignments will be conducted online through the CANVAS course space.