Most jobs ask for prior experience, but how can you get that first experience? Working as an intern is a wonderful way to obtain real-world, work-related knowledge and skills and has the potential to be the key to your success.

An HCC internship course serves as a capstone whereby students may apply the knowledge and skills they have learned in the classroom. Internships provide excellent opportunities for students to gain career-related experiences and workplace competencies in their chosen career field and to obtain skills valued by employers when hiring new staff.

All HCC for-credit internships are supervised by a full-time HCC faculty member who is responsible for approving internship sites, developing learning outcomes with student and internship site supervisors, and providing faculty supervision during the internship experience.

Students are responsible for identifying their place of employment for the internship and must seek approval from their assigned Internship Faculty Supervisor. Students can contact their assigned Internship Faculty Supervisor and/or the Internship Coordinator for assistance with finding internship opportunities. Students are notified about who their assigned Internship Faculty Supervisor is upon notification that they meet the HCC Internship program eligibility requirements.

The Career Development, Internship and Job Services Coordinator and faculty work collaboratively to facilitate the coordination of credit internships through the established internship procedures. Internship sites must be within an acceptable distance from the college to enable site supervision by faculty and staff. Exceptions to internship requirements, that meet the approval of program faculty, the program director, and the office coordinating student internships, may be made jointly by the chief academic affairs officer and the chief student affairs officer.

Application Priority Due Dates

• Fall semester: May 1
• Spring semester: October 1
• Summer semester: February 1
   

Eligibility

• Submission of an application for internship by the publicized institutional deadline; and
• Acceptable recommendation by faculty in a related field of study; and
• Minimum overall GPA of 2.5; and
• Completion of at least 50% of the discipline-specific program requirements in a student’s field of study, at least two of which courses are completed at HCC; and
• Final course grades of A, B, or C in a student’s specialty program courses; and
• Acceptable review of the student’s HCC conduct record by the chief student affairs officer (behavioral violations) and the chief academic affairs officer (academic integrity violations).
   

Credit Hours

Students may enroll in the internship course for 1,2, or 3 credits. The credit-to-contact hours standard is 60 hours of internship experience for each credit awarded for student workplace learning that is not governed by external accrediting bodies. Note: Nursing and Health Sciences clinical experiences are governed by third-party accrediting regulations and are coordinated through the Nursing and Health Sciences Divisions.

Workplace Accommodations

Students who need to arrange workplace accommodations due to a documented disability should also make an appointment with the Coordinator of Disability Services, Jaime Bachtell, via jlbachtell@hagerstowncc.edu or 240-500-2273.