Academic Internships
About Academic Internships
Academic Internships (AIs) are credit-bearing courses during the fall or spring semester. This means you must complement your internship or work experience with external coursework, such as readings and posters—that is the academic portion of the AI.
Academic Internships allow students to combine an independent study with internship work experience and receive course credit. To qualify for credit, the academic study and the internship must occur in the same fall or spring semester. A strong, rigorous academic component must complement the work experience. Participating students are primarily responsible for planning and conducting the academic internship. A faculty member advises the project and evaluates the student's work. An academic internship carries the same course credit as any other course offered at Brown.
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 in any other class. The internship can serve as a case study for a course or as an experience to which you bring an academic perspective. A required final paper will help you integrate your internship experience with your academic course of study. An academic internship is demanding, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Put your education to the test and engage in hands-on work in the larger community.
At the end of each semester, students participating in Independent Study Projects (ISPs), Group Independent Study Projects (GISPs), and Academic Internships (AIs) are asked to give a 2-3-minute creative presentation about their work over the course of the semester. These presentations offer you the opportunity to share what you have learned during your Independent Study experience with an audience of your friends, peers, faculty, and administrators.
Get Started
You may already have an internship in mind. Whether or not you do, consult with Curricular Resource Center staff and browse their internship archive to generate ideas. Past students have explored teaching, journalism, advertising, law, finance, elder day care, computer programming, TV production, and many other fields.
Once you’ve brainstormed ideas, visit BrownEngage - the Swearer Center’s community engagement tool - to learn about Providence community partners interested in working with Brown students to build their organization’s capacity. Subscribe to the Swearer Center newsletter to stay informed about community engagement opportunities. Students are welcome to visit the Swearer Center to discuss their interests in more depth and are encouraged to contact community partners directly to discuss internship possibilities.
An academic internship can be completed virtually. As with an in-person academic internship in the Providence area, the remote internship supervisor must submit a letter of support with your AI proposal.
Next, approach the professor with whom you would like to work. Do this as early as possible; professors plan their semester loads well in advance of the semester in which they complete the work. If the professor is willing to work with you, they will likely want to be involved in planning the internship. The CRC has AI planning sheets to help you get started.
Academic Internship Proposal/Application
To create an Academic Internship, you will need:
- A part-time internship
- A faculty sponsor and a sponsor from the organization where you’re working (in person or remotely)
An Academic Internship (AI) can be proposed as a credit-bearing course through the CRC or arranged directly with a faculty member by registering for their departmental independent study course. For a departmental independent study course, work directly with your faculty advisor or sponsor to register for the course before the deadline to add a course (four weeks into the semester).
Note: AIs can only be taken during the academic term (e.g., summer internships cannot become AIs). First-semester students cannot enroll in a CCC-approved AI. An AI requires you to coordinate with both a faculty sponsor and a workplace sponsor.
To apply for an Academic Internship, you must fill out the same application as (G)ISPs -- Independent Study Projects (ISPs) and Group Independent Study Projects (GISPs) -- but with the addition of the Academic Internship supplement form. You must submit the proposal form the semester before the course is offered, by that semester's application deadline. (If you decide instead to request credit for an internship within the departmental independent study course option, start by talking with some professors about this possibility.)