Internships

Students are encouraged to serve as interns in organizations or institutions to fulfill their Junior Year Experiential Learning Requirement, as well as a way of developing their knowledge and experience in a particular area. Internships are also a great way of developing relationships with organizations and people in the field for future work and/or volunteer opportunities.

Undergraduate majors in Sociology may enroll in the internship course (WMS 392).
Graduate students in Sociology may enroll in the internship course (WMS 499).

You may recieve undergraduate or graduate credit interning at organizations in a variety of areas within the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies-such as child and youth services, health and welfare agencies, social justice organizations, legal advocacy organizations, media institutions, among others. Interns spend the quarter working at the organization of choice, usually a minimum of ten hours per week.

Planning is required in advance of the quarter during which the internship is conducted. In order to recieve university credit for the internship, you must work with a professor in Women's and Gender Studies with interests in the area. For the internship to fulfill requirements of a course, you must work with the professor top develop a plan for research, reflection, and writing to supplement work in the field.

Students in Women's and Gender Studies have interned at some of the following organizations:

• Broadway Youth Center
• Beyondmedia Education
• Lambda Legal
• Center on Halsted
• Rainbow House
• Chicago Women's Health Center
• Rape Victim Advocates
• Howard Brown
• Women and Girls Collective Action Network

The Women and Gender Research Initiative in the Program also offers internships and other community-based service learning projects through the Take Back the Halls: Teen Violence Prevention Project as well as their Oral History Project of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

For more internship opportunities, consider joining the Women's and Gender Studies Yahoo! Listserv which provides a wealth of information about internships, jobs, conferences, events, etc. related to Women's and Gender Studies.