Establishing Internships in your Department or Program

Hiatt staff are liasions to specific academic department or progams.   To find out your Hiatt Staff Liaison, contact Andrea Dine at dine@brandeis.edu.  

Additionally, Departments or Programs have 3 choices for adding a for-credit internship course to their offerings:

The addition of an internship course usually follows the same procedures for adding any other course to your Department or Program. Please contact Jessica Paquin, the Academic Internship Administrator, and she will assist you with the process. 

Internships & Credit: Overview


Brandeis encourages students to pursue credit and not-for-credit internships.  The Hiatt Career Center and the Office of the Dean of Arts & Sciences work together to make sure that faculty, staff and students have support regarding both credit and non-credit bearing internships. 

Earning Credit Through Academic Internship Courses:

In order for Brandeis students to earn credit for an internship, he/she must enroll in an internship course. There are over 27 majors and minors that offer an internship course, be it an 89a/b Internship Seminar, a 92a/b Independent Internship or a 93a Research Internship.

  • All internships done for-credit must have a Faculty Sponsor/Advisor.  This faculty member supervises the student’s academic component outside of the student’s internship experience. 
  • The role of the faculty member is to challenge the students academically and facilitate their learning while in the internship. It should be as rigorous and thought-provoking as any other upper-level course.
  • See this faculty-created document of tips and suggestions for teaching internship courses.

Brandeis Academic Internship Course Learning Objectives & Outcomes

Academic Internship Courses should provide students with:
  • A semester-long, supervised experience related to a liberal arts area of interest or career goal
  • A framework for reflection and assessment guided by a Brandeis faculty member
  • An opportunity to gain professional experience and skills while exploring a potential career field of interest
  • An opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of an industry or field from an academic context
  • An understanding of how to set learning goals and monitor progress
  • Rigorous academic assignments designed to maximize learning and increase understanding of the related academic subject matter
  • An opportunity for ongoing reflection about supervision and mentorship with a supervisor within a professional setting
As a result of participation in an Academic Internship Course, students should be able to:
  • Clarify possible professional areas of interest
  • Analyze how an organization functions within its market or field
  • Articulate, in writing and/orally, a deeper understanding of an industry or field from an academic context
  • Create oral/written presentations/assignments synthesizing the learning as a result of making the connection between theory and practice
  • Think and communicate more critically about the internship experience      
How does a faculty member supervise a for-credit internship?:
  • Faculty teaching an 89a/b Internship course will use the class syllabus as a framework for guiding the internship. 

Faculty sponsors should generally be from the student’s major department and have expertise relevant to the student’s interests and internship. Faculty sponsors assist students in developing appropriate research/academic projects and provide guidance throughout the internship semester. The sponsor should not only approve the topic, but guide the student in designing a paper/project to address their research interest. Faculty sponsors are responsible for the following:

  • Approve student’s internship site relating to the academic discipline.
  • Assist in creating an academic learning agreement.
  • Being available to offer advice and feedback twice a month regarding the students progress toward the initial research or learning goals. 
  • Review all papers/projects and assign a letter grade (4-credit internships only).
Who can supervise an internship?:

Any faculty member can supervise a for-credit internship course within their department, as long as the course is in the course catalog, and the department approves the course.  Otherwise, the department must ok the addition of the internship course and the Registrar must add it to the catalog.  While not responsible for the student’s actual internship experience, it is advisable that the faculty guide the student’s experience so that he or she may gain the development from it.

Where are the internships that I can supervise?: 

Faculty may supervise an internship that takes place either off-campus or on campus.  What matters most is the 89/92/93 course and:

1.) The supervised work experience directly relates to the academic department in which the student is enrolled for the course, and

2.) That the academic component relates to the internship site experience.