An internship is a wonderful opportunity to jump-start your museum career! Your museum internship will give you valuable hands-on experience, the chance to work with experts in your field, and networking opportunities that may lead to future career possibilities.

General Information About the Course

The internship will have a canvas site that will serve as a hub for information, for required documents that must be signed and submitted, and a place for students to submit their mid-term and final reports.
Planning for the internship will take place before the semester begins.
Your faculty supervisor for the internship will be the faculty member who is the course instructor that semester.
The internship is 135 hours of professional work experience in a museum or related cultural heritage institution.

The work of the internship happens during the semester in which the student is enrolled. However, internship planning takes place before the semester starts to ensure there is enough time during the semester to complete the internship hours.

Students should submit their internship proposal at least 60 days prior to the start of the semester. Please submit to Dr. Susan Burke: sburke@ou.edu.

Policies

The site must be a museum or related cultural heritage institution.
The on-site supervisor should have the professional background and work experience in cultural heritage institutions to be able to successfully administer and supervise the internship.
The internship work must be professional-level work appropriate for graduate credit.
If the student already works in a museum, the internship CANNOT be the same as their job. If the internship is in the same museum, it must be in a different section, under a different supervisor, and the internship hours must be separate from the employment hours.
The internship may be paid or unpaid.
The internship may be at the institution or remote work.
135 work hours must be completed before the end of the internship semester.

Directions for the Internship Proposal

Please submit the following document to the course instructor well before the beginning of the internship semester:

Student faculty contract Internship.docx

How to Write Learning Objectives

Learning objectives for an internship will depend on the specific nature of the internship and the goals you want to achieve during your time with the organization. However, here are a few types of learning objectives that can be applicable to various types of internships:

Gain Practical Experience: Acquire hands-on experience and apply theoretical knowledge learned in an academic setting to real-world situations. Be specific and state what hands-on experience you will learn.
Develop Professional Museum Skills: Learn and develop specific skills relevant to the internship site. Specify what the skills are that you hope to learn. Perhaps they relate to exhibit development, museum education or outreach, preservation, measuring and improving the visitor experience, etc..
Problem-Solving: Perhaps your internship site is facing a particular challenge and you will be working on a team to develop problem-solving techniques to address this challenge. If so, describe the challenge.
There can be a variety of other types of learning objectives based on what work you will be doing in the internship.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Here is an Introduction Letter that you can use when you are seeking an internship.

Site supervisors have asked questions about what our expectations are regarding internships. Here is an information sheet for them.