Internship Agreement for COMS 530 Internship in Communication Studies

Thank you for agreeing to work with a KU Communication Studies undergraduate student as an internship sponsor. The goal of this internship program is to provide junior and senior students an active learning experience that allows them to demonstrate and further develop their communication studies-related knowledge and skills.

To achieve this goal, student interns should be engaged in meaningful work experiences that allow them to further develop skills relevant to a future communication-related career.

Based on their specific communication coursework, interns can offer your organization valuable knowledge of how communication functions in domains including: interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, cross-cultural interactions, organizational culture, client relationships and external collaborations. We encourage you to begin by having your intern discuss their specific coursework and related career goals.

We also ask that you plan meaningful weekly work experiences that will facilitate your intern’s ability to apply and further develop their communication knowledge and related skills in a workplace setting.

To this end, please note that interns should not be used as administrative support. Students are paying tuition for KU credit hours associated with this internship, and the internship experience counts toward their Communication Studies degree plan. The internship should provide learning and skill application/development opportunities, similar to what they would gain in a course.

To ensure the intern can contribute in the most meaningful way, we ask that you designate an on-site contact who will be available for meaningful weekly supervision, timely feedback, and mentoring. This will help ensure the best outcomes for both the organization and the intern.

To begin, we ask that the designated internship supervisor and weekly contact (if different) review the list of internship objectives (see list below) established by the KU Department of Communication Studies. You can choose one or more learning outcomes for your intern. Please use this as a starting point for crafting a meaningful and productive experience for your organization and your intern. Please circle the agreed-upon learning outcomes:

• Communication Internship Learning Objective 1: Apply critical thinking and problem- solving in constructing effective informative and persuasive messages for various internal and external groups, including but not limited to employees, clients, and community members – as well as evaluating data related to message/project outcomes.

• Communication Internship Learning Objective 2: Apply communication studies insights to help generate new levels of understanding of how communication is shaped by, and in turn shapes, the lived experiences of employees, clients and community members based on their race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, age, and/or culture.

• Communication Internship Learning Objective 3: Apply knowledge of the relationship between societal-level community and communication to help design communicative practices (face-to-face, written, and/or technology-based) that boost community engagement and create open, authentic dialogue across diverse communities (*this option is designed for non-profit, media, and governmental sector organizations).

• Communication Internship Learning Objective 4: Demonstrate personal written and/or verbal communication skills that enhance the quality of team and project outcomes; help create programs and resources that will transfer these skills to the team or organization (assist with development of project communications, training programs, team communication practices, use of technology for virtual teams, website and social media content, community engagement programs, data analysis and reporting).

• Communication Internship Learning Objective 5: Demonstrate an understanding of ethical considerations in everyday workplace communication practices, including issues related to hierarchical power dynamics; diversity, equity & inclusion concerns; and/or timeliness and appropriateness of communication with various internal and external groups.