To ease students’ searches for internships, a new program has been created that will encourage students “to go out and get experience.”
The program, called Participatory Learning Experiences, brings together most of the campus departments by emphasizing research projects as well as traditional internship opportunities. Established as part of the University’s Process for Change, the program is based on a Career Center Web site.
The new Web site — uocareer.uoregon.edu/ple — is a consolidation of internships from 25 University departments that offer more than three dozen programs. The PLE program guarantees students a pass/no pass credit for their participation.
PLE director Don Van Houten, former dean of the College of Art and Sciences, said the Web site will make access to internships more convenient for students.
“We don’t want to spend a lot of time spinning your wheels,” he said.
The hopes of the members of the PLE advisory committee, which is composed of 10 professors and directors, is that the difficulty of finding job experience will diminish.
Finding internships “can be a confusing process for students,” said Beth Pfeiffer, Career Center assistant internship director . “This [database] will make it easy to get involved and make it a quality experience for students.”
Internships or research opportunities “must be related to departmental educational objectives,” in order to be listed as a PLE, according to the Web site.
“There’s no excuse anymore,” said Pam Cytrynbaum, internship coordinator for the School of Journalism and Communication. “Students must be good consumers of the information available [and] want to go out and get experience.”
Individual PLE research projects are required to be closely supervised by a faculty member. A contract must also be signed by the student and supervisor that covers learning objectives, a position description and employer contact information.
“Students don’t have to look all over any more,” said Pfeiffer, who serves on the PLE advisory committee.
The PLE program is attracting the attention of departments that do not have any other type of internship system installed.
“The journalism school has always known that real-world experience is essential,” Cytrynbaum said. “For a long time, other parts of the [University] didn’t have the same sense of urgency.”
Opportunities from most of the University’s departments, including psychology, education, architecture and allied arts and political science, are already posted on the site. More departments will likely add to the on-line catalog as awareness increases, Web site coordinator Tina Haynes said.
“Right now, it’s just a small sampling of what it’s going to be,” Haynes said.
The Web site database allows students to search for specific internships in a number of departments as well as in several different occupations. A description of the results is displayed along with contact information. “I strongly urge everyone to get an internship,” Cytrynbaum said. “I’d scream out my window if I could to tell everyone how important it is to get some experience.”