Jour. 361: Fall and Spring syllabus
4 credits
Department Internship Supervisors:
Sharon Friedman 610-758-4179 smf6@lehigh.edu
Kenneth Friedman 610-868-7692 (H) or kaf3@lehigh.edu

This is a four-credit practical experience course in the “real world” of journalism or public relations. You are required to work at your internship 4 hours per credit per week for 13 weeks for a total of 208 hours. Of these, 195 hours (15 hours a week for 13 weeks) will be at your internship site and 13 hours will be devoted to working on materials for me at home throughout the semester.

No books or exams are required for this course: just hard, steady work at your internship site, preparing for class, and some writing for me as you go along and at the end of the course. However, like any course, you MUST come to class, which will be only once a month. In addition, you must work at your internship site for the required number of hours and be on time for work.

There are no dress codes for internships, but appropriate work dress is expected. Start out with good shoes, nice-looking shirts and slacks/skirts or casual dresses until you find out what is expected. Some places are far more casual than others. You won't need suits unless there is a special presentation or occasion. Let your site supervisor guide you, so be sure to ask about appropriate dress. No jeans or torn slacks; no shorts, tee shirts, sneakers -- you get the idea.

You are expected to complete all work assigned to you by your site supervisor given his/her time designation. Don't be afraid to ask questions so you are sure about what you are supposed to accomplish and when it is due. Be sure to say you don't understand something when that is the case. You are there to learn, not provide perfect professional material. You can't learn unless you ask.

You probably will be asked to do some routine clerical tasks occasionally, but this should not happen very often. You are not there to be an office assistant or an errand person. If you think that too much of what you are doing is clerical, I need to know about this IMMEDIATELY. I will discuss the situation tactfully with your site supervisor. Most site supervisors know what they should be giving interns, but some are new and not sure. Your assignments should be related to journalism or public relations training activities. If you think you need something more challenging to do, talk to me first and then we will approach your site supervisor about the problem.

What to turn in

You will need to turn in four major things that you will need to do for the Lehigh part of your internship. The written materials are all due when specified in an e-mail sent to you by the Department Internship Supervisor. Here are some more details about those.

1. You should keep a daily journal. In it, you should record what activities you did that day at the internship, your feelings about these activities, highlights, bad points and what you think you learned. Information from the diary will be the basis from which you will write your final paper. Be sure to write down more, rather than less, information.

2. You also need to turn in copies of your three best-written pieces, both in original and final draft. This can be a sticky point if you are at a research, radio, television or web internship where you are not writing articles. Those who have a problem fulfilling this requirement may give me other things you have developed--interview questions, research activities, tapes of shows you have worked on, etc. You should talk with me about this as soon as possible. When you turn such work in, you will have to indicate what you did in connection with these activities. If you can't come up with three "pieces" of some sort to turn in, your other option is to make your final paper longer (8 pages) and more detailed. However, you must provide some work you have done for my evaluation.

3. You need to write a final paper. It should be no less than 5 pages and no more than 10. It can be written either as an article for the Brown and White or as a report to prospective interns and me that describes your internship and your response to it. It should discuss seven points:

a. what you did,
b. what you learned,
c. the types of interactions you had with professionals on the job and how they treated you,
d. the good points of the internship,
e. the bad points of the internship,
f. whether you would recommend this particular internship to others, and
g. how you feel this internship will contribute to your career goals.

This paper should be well-written and interesting. Good grammar and perfect spelling are a must: the paper will be an important part of your grade. Be sure that your final paper is a publishable piece of work.

4. You MUST attend three internship classes, meet privately with me at least once during the semester, and read your e-mail for internship messages about midterm and final grades, meetings and other information. The three classes will be held on (dates to be assigned) from 4-5 p.m. in Coppee 105. We will meet privately toward the end of November. Dates and times will be arranged by e-mail. NO EXCUSES about missing the above three meetings, unless you are really sick and then you will need a doctor's note. If you are interning at this particular time, make arrangements to skip work and be at these meetings.

Grading policies

Your site supervisor will be responsible for 60 percent of your grade and the Lehigh internship supervisor will control the other 40 percent. Your site supervisor will forward a midterm and final evaluation of your work to Lehigh. The evaluation will contain a letter grade recommendation and answers to a number of questions concerning your work, behavior and appearance. He or she also will be asked to certify that you have completed the required number of hours. I will share specific information from these evaluations with you if allowed to by the site supervisor. If he or she asks me to keep the evaluation confidential, I will share general information with you. I will either let you know privately during class about the midterm evaluation or contact you about it by e-mail. You also should ask your site supervisor for critiques of your work each month, so that you know how well you are doing and what needs improvement.

Your site supervisor evaluates you at mid term and the end of semester. You will be rated as either excellent, very good, good, fair or poor on the following:

• writing skills
• speed of work
• accuracy
• capacity to accept and respond to criticism
• ability to develop ideas and produce work with limited supervision
• readiness to share ideas and work as a group member
• motivation to excel
• leadership potential (ability to make decisions; show mature judgment)
• personal appearance (appropriate dress, personal hygiene)
• student's overall work

My part of the grade will be based on the three major things you turn in and whether you have attended and been prepared for internship classes, met with me and responded to e-mail messages. I also will look for inconsistencies in grading by site supervisors and correct them when necessary. Your final grade comes from me, not your site supervisor.

Expectations

Department interns usually have a great experience, but your experience will depend on YOU. You will get as much out of your internship as you are willing to put in. You should learn a great deal and, by the way, enjoy yourself. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about career choices and to build your portfolio with clippings and other professional work that will enhance your resume when you go job-hunting in the future.

Please contact us if you encounter any problems or if you are unhappy about the way your internship is going. We can try to fix things if we know about them.

Office hours are by appointment. Feel free to call Sharon or Ken.

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