How can I confirm that the student is prepared to be an intern?
At the beginning of your dialogue, we recommend that you ask the student if he or she would like to earn college credit for the experience. Credit-seeking interns must meet certain eligibility requirements, including competency in the discipline related to the internship as demonstrated by a minimum GPA of 2.0 and a minimum number of credits in the field as determined by the department. If the student would like to earn college credit and has not already been in contact with the AACC Internship Office, please ask them to establish a relationship with the AACC Internship Office and to identify a faculty advisor. If the student is a noncredit intern, there is neither a faculty advisor nor any eligibility requirements. Consequently, please be certain to screen these candidates as you would were they seeking employment.

Do all interns receive college credit?
Internships may be either noncredit or for credit.

What special considerations do I need to remember about students earning college credit?
Credit-based experiences feature learning objectives, a faculty advisor with whom to partner, periodic performance evaluation and a minimum number of contact hours at the work site.

What about noncredit students?
Noncredit internships are informal arrangements. Noncredit interns are essentially volunteers seeking professional experience for career exploration. These students do not have to have a faculty advisor or minimum number of contact hours.

How do I attract students?
Internships are quite competitive. For this reason, we recommend structuring the opportunity with as many student-friendly features as possible. For example, challenging learning opportunities, exciting special projects, flexible hours and any compensation should be well described in the internship proposal. It is never too soon to propose an internship description. Internship proposal instructions ^PDF

Does monetary compensation make a difference?
Many students at AACC are also employed full- or part-time. An internship may mean that they have to give up hours at work in order to take advantage of an engaged learning opportunity at your business. Students seeking college credit also have to pay for the time they invest at your business through college tuition. Consequently, students do appreciate some form of monetary compensation if it is available either through a wage or a stipend and mileage.

How does the Internship Office refer students to me? 
Working with many disciples, we constantly handle inquiries from students and circulate internship proposals among faculty. Additionally, we screen students for eligibility to seek credit. Once students go through this process, they will contact you directly to apply for the internship.

May I select a student, or does AACC select a student for me?
Please consider the referrals as if they are candidates being hired for employment. Be aware that this is a mutual matching process for you and for the student. You can conduct interviews to screen candidates to ensure that the student you are interested in fits your needs, and that you can provide opportunities to meet their learning objectives.

How early should I apply to post an internship opportunity?
The sooner the better! Many students seek opportunities to build into their academic program a semester prior to the credit-based internship experience.

How do I start posting internship opportunities?
Contact the office to obtain a template for an internship listing, or access it online.^PDF

What is my role in evaluating the student?
The faculty advisor for credit-based internships will work with you and the student to establish learning objectives and tasks supporting those objectives. The faculty advisor evaluates the academic outcomes for learning objectives. The worksite evaluates job performance. In general, evaluations occur in the middle and at the end of the internship.

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