SFAI students pursue internships in a variety of fields, including nonprofit arts administration, graphic design, film production, web design, and more. Students complete internships to gain real-world experience in their field, sample a possible career direction, make professional connections, earn school credit, or prepare themselves for a job search.
Requirements of Internship Sites
- All interns should have regular access to a supervisor, who can provide them with specific feedback and be available to them during their work days.
- Internship sites should provide interns with a meaningful understanding of their organization.
- Interns should not be restricted to performing menial tasks, but should have opportunities to see the larger workings of the organization. This is often accomplished by inviting interns to sit in on staff meetings and client presentations or to shadow their supervisor through parts of his or her day.
- Some students choose to complete internships in order to earn course credit. For an internship to qualify as a credit-bearing internship, interns must work for a minimum of 90 hours over the course of a 15-week semester. These internships must begin with the semester cycle, starting in January/February, May/June, and September.
- Internship sites often ask about compensation for their interns. Compensation is entirely at the discretion of the organization; however, though students value the experience of an internship, the financial reality for most students is that they are unable to commit to many hours each week of unpaid time.
