Internships
What is an internship?
An internship is a work experience, either paid or unpaid, within a field that is related to a student’s future career goals and/or area of study. Internships are typically part-time experiences taking place during the fall or spring semester, or may be full-time over the summer. In the College of Natural Science, internships must be supervised, professional-level workplace experience with defined responsibilities and learning outcomes.
Do I need an internship?
Internships are not required for College of Natural Science students. Further, for some of our majors, internships may not be available. We recommend students focus more on the skills, credentials, and connections they develop within an experience rather than the type of experience. For example, experience as a hospice volunteer may not fit the criteria for an internship, but will likely benefit the student more than an experience labeled as an internship that provides no meaningful development.
Finding an internship
While every students’ needs are different, it likely that Natural Science students should focus more on finding a meaningful career experience (builds skills, credentials, and/or connections) rather than finding an experience that’s qualified as an internship.
After you know what you hope to learn from your experience and have prepared drafts of documents like cover letters and resumes, you have several ways to secure a meaningful experience.
- Handshake | Handshake is a career management platform with thousands of internship and job postings. Other job board sites may also be helpful.
- Career Fairs | The Career Services Network (CSN) hosts career fairs for students of all majors to network with many employers who hire Spartans.
- Company Websites | If you have a certain set of companies or organizations you’d like to work with, check their websites for information about internships, jobs, and volunteering
- Summer Global Remote Internship | NatSci Experiential Learning partners with internship provider organizations who identify customized science-related internship placements for each student in international organizations such as businesses, start-ups, universities, hospitals, and non-profits. Students complete these part-time internships virtually and complete a 3-credit internship course. This program is currently offered during the summer semester only.
- Unposted internships/opportunities | Around two-thirds of positions are never posted on job boards. Reach out to friends, family, supervisors, professors, advisors, and mentors to let them know what kind of experience you’re looking for. They may be able to connect you to an opportunity.
- Professional Organizations | Many professional organizations may also host job boards. Be sure to follow them on LinkedIn and see if they offer free newsletter subscriptions
- LinkedIn | You can use LinkedIn, a professional networking site, in a number of ways throughout
your search. You can follow specific companies and view current postings or use it
to connect with professionals in the field.
If student experiences meet the criteria set forth by the College of Natural Science for an internship, students may enroll in 1-3 credits of NSC 493, with a maximum of 3 credits total in their NatSci degree.
An internship is a supervised, professional-level learning experience in a workplace setting for which learning objectives have been established.
Students may earn 1-3 academic credits for an internship through NSC 493, an online, asynchronous, Pass/No Pass course. Credit for the internship experience is based on the completion of all assignments and academic requirements of NSC 493, not just the hours worked in the placement. A minimum of 40 hours at the placement site is required per credit. NSC 493 enrollment must be approved in advance. Credit may be earned only in the term in which the internship is completed. Please note NSC 493 is a regular MSU course entailing payment of tuition and fees.
Email natsci.explore@msu.edu for access to the application to enroll in NSC 493. If the application is approved, the student will be notified and enrolled in NSC 493.