Defining a Public Relations Internship through Feedback from the Field

Students' experiences with the business internship program at Kuwait University

“…Academic preparation includes the completion of a specific number of completed credits with an acceptable GPA (Beard & Morton, 1999). Bourland-Davis, Graham, and Fulmer (1997) note that interns should at least have an understanding of the field of study and its key concepts before participating in an internship. Also, Bacow and Byrne (1993) warn that attempting an internship prematurely could be counterproductive.…”

Effects of Internship Predictors on Successful Field Experience

“…For many programs, academic preparation includes a specific number of completed credits, including a number of mass communication courses with an acceptable grade point average. Bourland-Davis, Graham and Fulmer (1997) note that interns should at least have "an understanding of the field, its key concepts, and basic technological skills, especially writing"…”

“…Moreover, Beard (1997) Managing internships includes: (a) providing interns with the physical and other resources needed to accomplish assigned work (Beard, 1997). (b) providing interns with an experience that approximates that of a full-time employee (Verner, 1993), (c) providing students with the opportunity to work on projects from inception to completion (Beard) with little "busy work" (Campbell & Kovar, 1994;Krasilovsky & Lendt, 1996), and (d) providing appropriate study programs for the site (Bourland-Davis et al, 1997).…”

Interagency Resource Teams: a Model for Collaborative Approaches to Environmental Education

“…From these observations, we have begun to develop new assessment tools to determine whether causal relationships exist between the four program elements and student awareness of the different professional cultures, ability to work with limited mentoring, and application of scientific skills. We are drawing from a variety of qualitative analyses that have been used successfully by a number of internship programs (Akeyo 1993; Kleinfeld 1983; Basow & Byrne 1993; Bourland‐Davis et al 1997 ) and quantitative analyses that have been used to investigate participants, underlying assumptions ( Durning & Osuna 1994). Furthermore, we will continue to track the students over the long term to determine the enduring effects of this program on their skills at bridging the agency‐academic cultural divide.…”

“…Although they provide excellent experiences for some students, these programs vary in quality and effectiveness because the student is often a passive observer in the internship process. Many students are asked to perform mundane tasks that are not particularly challenging, educational, or effective ( Wagner 1983; Akeyo 1993; Schön 1995; Scribner & Wakelyn 1998; Bourland‐Davis et al 1997 ) because all parties involved—interns, researchers, and agency specialists—tend to be less than fully engaged. Agency specialists and researchers have little time to mentor students given their often overwhelming responsibilities for managing and researching natural resources.…”