After receiving approval for an Co-operative Education opportunity from the coordinator in the Management Department and from the appropriate person in Career Planning and Placement, a student has three major responsibilities to complete in order to receive credit and a grade for the internship.

Throughout the course of the co-op relationship, students are required to keep a daily journal. This is similar to a diary and is used to help the student describe the tasks and directions they receive as they proceed through the co-op process. It is also used to record the feelings, excitement and frustrations that are often a part of any working relationship. A few weeks into the co-op, the student will be asked to bring the journal to the office of the professor who is monitoring the academic part of the co-op.

As indicated above, the student periodically needs to meet with his/her Professor to insure that the co-op is a good learning experience for the student and a positive experience for the employer. After a few weeks on the job, and after a review of the journal by the professor, the student and the professor will meet. Together they will choose a topic, related to the student’s co-op work experience, which will be researched by the student. It will eventually become the term paper, which is the major academic component of the co-op experience.

This paper will be an academically oriented research assignment that will link the knowledge that the student has received during the co-op with Management theory. The professor will guide the student to appropriate sources and will expect periodic updates of the student’s progress, including an outline of the paper, and on occasion, a draft version of the paper. The final paper will be a very important component in assigning the student’s final grade for the co-op.

For more information concerning the internships in the Management Department, please contact Marianne Gauss, Assistant Professor in College Hall 407A or by phone at 951-1677.