All Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies majors are required to complete an internship as part of their major requirements. The internship must be for at least 3 credits, which equals approximately 9 hours a week of volunteer time, or 90 hours over a quarter. Internship hours can be divided over more than one quarter. See the undergraduate adviser for more information.
What is an Internship?
An internship is a supplemental educational opportunity to explore career options and develop skills related to the GWSS undergraduate major in a work or work-related setting. In addition to the internship hours, students attend four seminar meetings with other departmental student interns, and practice connecting classroom theory and work-based experience with the completion of an internship paper at the end of the quarter.
All internships should provide opportunities to apply classroom knowledge in a professional environment, encourage students to develop and refine skills that are transferable to a variety of work settings, include a position description with relevant and clearly defined learning objectives, and provide feedback from a professional with expertise in that field.
In the course of investigating internships and pursuing opportunities, students should consider what their individual learning goals are, and how the internship activities they are exploring would assist them in meeting those goals.
How to Arrange and Register for an Internship
There are many ways to locate organizations that offer internships. You can search online (idealist.org, United Way King Co, etc.), you can search Handshake (formerly Husky Jobs), you can use the list of internship sites other GWSS students have interned with for ideas, or you can research and contact organizations you are interested in. An invaluable resource is the Career and Internship Center right here on the UW Seattle Campus. With a host of resources developed with students like yourself in mind such as workshops, handouts, and videos, the Career and Internship Center has the tools you that can help get you where you want to land. A great start is here. Working closely with your GWSS Advisor you can rest assured that you will find the right internship for developing the transferable skills you seek.
Once you have identified a position and met with the site supervisor, contact the GWSS undergraduate adviser. Before you can begin using your internship hours toward the 90 hour minimum for meeting GWSS major requirements you will need to complete an online Internship Learning Contract, and after determining that your position is appropriate, the adviser will register you for credit. You will be sent the dates for the seminar meetings after you are registered.
International Students
International students must secure CPT authorization from ISS before beginning an internship. It can take up to three weeks for ISS to review and process CPT applications, so it’s best to start the process as soon as possible. For more information, check out our Fieldwork Handout for International Students.