iSchool Student Services Webinar: Internships Q and A Panel Discussion with Faculty Advisors

All right, everyone. Welcome so much to our lunchtime lunch and learn about the info 294 and Mara 294 internship elective. This is going to be a wonderful discussion time for you to work with your faculty adviserss for this class and hear from one of our internship site supervisors and a recent internship student. So, we'll go ahead and get started with our agenda. Um, today we'll we've just completed our welcome. We'll have Dr. Harlland and Dr. Hoffman introduce themselves. We'll talk about the benefits of taking this elective. Um, what does this option entail? Who's eligible? how to prepare for finding and enrolling in your 294 um course and then we'll hear an internship supervisor perspective and we'll have a student perspective and an open Q&A with panelists. So that's a lot to get into for one hour. At this point I'm going to turn uh the presentation over to Dr. Harlland. Hello and welcome. Um, I'm going to admit upfront that I am a little bit of a newbie to the um, uh, internships because I have just taken them over this, uh, semester, although I've had fabulous mentorship from Dr. Maine, so I think I have a handle on it. Um, so Sheila, do you want to give time for Dr. Hoffman to introduce herself? Um, or shall we just move on to the next slide? >> As you wish. I'm gonna have Dara introduce herself when we get to Dar's slides. Dr. Hoffman and Okay. So, can you move to the next slide? So, we want to talk a little bit about the benefits of doing an internship and why, you know, you should maybe consider this as part of your MLIS or MARA degree. I mean, the most obvious, of course, is that you develop real world skills through actually doing them. Sorry, I'm working on my camera a little bit here. Um uh they so it allows you to build your resume and your desired field. So when you go out job hunting, you have something on your resume that's in your desired field. Um you're able to develop mentoring relationships and these are very important um because they do have a tendency to last at you know throughout your career. Um and it'll also allows you to build networking opportunities within the field. um you can get references from your internship sup supervisors. I've had some job opportunities already this one semester pop open and so um there's some ways to build networking and you know there's also just the general ability to explore different areas of interest. Maybe you think you want to work in a library archive and it turns out maybe that's not much for you or you think you want to be a children's librarian but those 5-year-olds are pretty much not your jam. So, you know, this gives you a chance to maybe explore that a little bit if what you you know your fields of interest, especially if you take it kind of relatively early on in your um MLIS journey or your MARA journey. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what that means, like what the requirements are a little later on. Let's go to the next slide. So, there are a lot of different internships out there and from a lot of different fields. And like this is slide is really just an example of some of the different places that you can work. We have internships with all kinds of different CSU campuses, um, UC campuses. We also have them with private organizations like that. Um, one down on the corner is a queer archive um that we work with. Uh, the uh we have the button museum. That's that thing up on the upper left and they usually take multiple internes that you know research the buttons and and provide some information on on Providence. Um, we also work with the Smithsonian has I mean like that's a massive institution. Although this semester that would have been interesting since the government shutdown um like you know interfered a little bit but they're still our government interns are still getting their job done. Um and you know then things like the Museum of Maritime Pets which yes I did not know that that existed. I didn't know a button museum existed until I started being internship coordinator and I'm super fascinated by all of that. So anyways, those are just some of the ideas and we have a huge database. I'll show you the interface in a little bit um of all these different places. I mean, I did not put up the public libraries because those don't have really fun um logos, but we have public library interns. There's private school internships. There's a number of different types of internships. Next slide. So, now I know you all want to work for the Museum of Maritime Pets. Uh what does it mean that you what do you what are the requirements to be um apply for an internship or to take the internship course? So in uh in the masters of library and information science class, you have to have your core classes 200, 202, 203, and 204 as always out of the way and nine units of electives. So you have to have 19 completed units. You can um apply for an internship and register for the internship course if you have units in progress towards the 19 completed units. Um Dr. Dr. Hoffman will talk more about this, but in MARA, you have to be in good academic standing. Um, and you have have to have completed MARA 200, 204, and um, six advanced courses. If you are a postmaster certificate student, you have to have 203 out of the way, and you can only take it once um or for three units, I should say. Um, so internships are both paid and unpaid. The majority of them are unpaid, but we do have some paid internship availability. Um, they require you can choose to do a 2unit, 3unit or 4unit internship. And if you're doing two, it's 90 hours. If it's three, it's 135. And if it's four, it's 180. Um, they are credit, no credit, so they don't like add into your GPA in a particular way. um you can only enroll enroll in one internship per semester, but that doesn't mean you can't retake um internships because you can take a maximum of eight units of internship credit towards the MLIS degree. Uh I'm really sorry. No, you can't uh do an internship at your regular place of employment. If you work in a very large institution and you're switching departments, sometimes that is approved. um uh you cannot do the same internship site twice and um you have to kind of spread those hours out through uh the semester. All of this information about eligibility is in our internship handbook which is at that URL and um there is a lot of detail in there about like how you apply for an internship and what you do once you've uh acquired an internship and the process that you go through from there and what the course requires. Next slide. It is a 16-week internship in fall and spring and 10 in the summer. uh same as uh the normal sessions. Um and yes, if you are in the MLIS, you only need those 19 units. What you're looking at right here at that previous URL, and Sheila will send out the slides, is um our internship database. So, you can search by the type of organization you want to work in, archives or non-archchival. Um, maybe there's a specific institution that's close to you that you're curious if they have an internship already listed in. Like say you live in San Jose and you want to see what is listed at our Martin Luther King Library. You can search by that. Maybe you want to just look around you where you are located. Um, it can be um virtual, so you might want to search by that as well. Um, and you know, maybe like, oh god, I could use a little extra money, so I'm only going to search paid internships. Um, so there's all kinds of different ways to search for our internships. You can also set up your own internship. That's a little bit more of an involved process. And if that is the process that you're going to do, you will need to reach out to me to connect me with whoever the site supervisor will be on that. But this if you're interested in internship is a excellent place to start. And the next slide, let me see. So once you get an internship, you will work with your site supervisor. Um you will work with your site supervisor to develop course learning outcomes. I see your question. I'll come back to it. Um and then over the course of the semester while you are completing your internship and this is important. This is a class. So there are class assignments that go along with it. There are three status or activity reports that you will complete. And one of them is kind of fun. It's a multimedia presentation that sort of is a day in the life. This is what I do um as an intern. And then you also will do a final report that is based on those learning outcomes that you came up with identified for the internship. And there's directions in the internship handbook back at that URL I mentioned that um teach you how to write course learning outcomes and walk you through how you do that. Um so don't freak out about like oh I have to come up with course learning outcomes and then I have to write a final report based on them. I will also say um I just met with somebody today. Course learning outcomes are a little bit of a roadmap. So I am open to some adjust some small adjustment to them as necessary throughout the semester. Say the government shuts down. Um so these are all things to kind of keep um in um in mind. So, um I think DAR answered the question and I think I got mine um in the thing. Next slide. And I am now going to turn it over to our wonderful Dr. Hoffman. Thank you so much, Dr. Harlland. Hi, everybody. I'm Darra Hoffman. I am the MARA program coordinator. And for MARA, it's a little bit different. We do have the 294 and uh Dr. Harlon is the supervisor for internships under 294 as well, but we also have 295 which includes uh organizational consulting projects and um professional projects. So, let me talk about it a little bit. So, you do need to do some planning ahead please and thank you. If you want to take an internship, please do not email me or Dr. Harlland on the first day of the semester and say you want to do an internship that semester. That goes poorly. Um and so uh in MARA like I said we have the three options. Uh for the postmasters you have to have done 203. Um and as you can see here uh you want to target some time around 4 to 6 weeks to submit your application before the semester starts. So you you really do need to be ahead of time for getting these. And some of the internships are quite competitive. Um I know that the uh MoMA the San Francisco MoMA is very competitive. all the MARA students want to do that one. Um, and they always get lots of applications and so it's also good to have a few different plans in mind uh at a few different internships that you might be willing to do. And that's something that uh I am always happy to discuss with you. I would assume Dr. Harlland's happy to talk to the MLIS about what internships are most appropriate for you. As you can see my emails here and I also have a Calendarly where you can just pop on to my calendar and not have to do the can you do Tuesday? No. How about Wednesday? No, we don't like that. So, uh would you please do the next slide? And so, um the first option for Mara's students who want a professional experience is the internship uh as I said and then we have the organizational consulting project and the professional project. And the really nice thing about all of these is that we and I see your question Michael give me just a moment. is that we have an arrangement for MARA students where after doing the program you get credit for five of the six ICRM uh exams towards your certified records management certification which is quite valuable I think in their latest survey uh CRM start in the low six figures so that's not bad uh and that requires also one year of work experience in the field by doing an internship you get credit for that one year of work experience so it's very valuable for our students who can do it to do one of the professional experiences. And when it comes to getting an advantage over the competition, um trying to get as many um opportunities to show your work quality as you can over the semester. Really paying attention to the application, what they're looking for, uh and how you can bring your previous experience to bear to the role. Um, in MARA, of course, a lot of folks who come in have been in the field for quite a while, but not all. Uh, but a lot of folks say we're teachers. And so, if you're a teacher, I know that you can manage people and that you have organizational skills, uh, that are next level, right? And so, it's thinking about what you bring to bear that really would make you the right person for that internship. Next slide, please. And so, the first option is the internship. This is, you know, uh, under Dr. Harlland's supervision. And you have to have done 19 units including MARA 20 and 204 and it's 135 um hours for the three units over the semester. Very much the same as the MLIS one just in more appropriate places. Uh next slide please. The next thing we have available and this is for students who are coming into the program with at least three years of work experience in the field is what's called our organizational consulting project. This is done with someone uh with a supervisor who is um a certified records manager. And you in this one have to have done have the permission of me, the 295 instructor to be able to take this. And so you have to get a recommendation letter from one of your instructors and verify your experience. And basically over the course of the semester, you do a project that the uh organization would typically hire a consultant to do. And again, this is does count same as the internship for that credit for the um CRM and um has the similar requirements. You have to do a final report and three status reports and the 135 hours over the semester to get your project done. Next slide, please. And finally, we have the professional project. This is similar to the organizational consulting project. This is for students who don't have those three years of experience. Again, you will do a particular project that has been submitted by an employer over the course of the semester. Uh you'll submit your learning report and all of that and uh the these uh OCP and professional project both get done under that 295 bucket. And so I'm your supervisor for those. And so it's a little bit complicated with Mara. We have 294s under uh Dr. Harlland's supervision and 295s are under me. Next slide, please. And so please please process matters plan ahead. Uh as you can see this is a screenshot of part of the application and the very first two things it says are I have read the student checklist and I have read the appropriate handbook. I have put the links in here so that you can read said handbooks because a lot of the questions that folks have are answered in said handbooks. That said if you read it and you don't find the answers then please do feel free free to reach out. So for example, um OCP is similar to internship in that you can't do it at your place of employment. However, I have had a student in the past who worked for the state of Washington in a role in a different agency. And so it was prefixably fine to her to go to a different agency to do an organizational consulting project. So if it's something like that and you're not clear from the handbook, feel free to reach out, but do please take the time to read all of the material available first. And next slide, please. And now I'm going to hand it over to Oh, go ahead, Marian. >> I was just going to say, um, we've had a couple questions in the chat. >> Thank you. >> And you and I, Dr. Hoffman and I share something in common, which is the ability to shove a lot of words into a very short amount of time and a lot of information. Um Sheila, can you confirm that the slides will be shared with registrants and um if we can't get a YouTube maybe we can share out like the Zoom link of the recording? >> Yeah. So everyone um I do have access to the emails of people who registered and so next week I'll be able to email you a link to the Ponapto recording as well as our slides in a PDF. bear with me because we are in a very um high volume time here in the office. So I will get those out to you. Preferably we will have this recording rendered into a YouTube recording and put on our channel. So we are just trying to get some information about who on our staff will be available to do that. So please um thank you for your patience. Back to the regularly scheduled program. >> Okay. Well, it's great. I guess I'm introducing myself. So, um, my name is Ray Lynn Holidayiday. Most people call me Ray. And I have had a a hybrid mo I think all of the interns that I've worked with from San Jose State and it's come across the different ones that they've talked about today, whether it was 295 or 294, the project based one. I've had I think someone from each one of those so about four or five students total I can't remember which year we placed this uh we we got this accepted with San Jose State to advertise the internship but I think it's been at least four or five years and it's been amazing um the relationships the mentorship the back and forth that I've been able to have with the students from the MAR program and the MLS program I think have been rewarding for both my department myself and the students. Um so we try to you know as a certified records manager as a certified information governance officer of credentials in both I like to include as much of the core exposure to as much of the core components of REM and some of these emerging areas including AI. um as much as we can uh during an internship. So it could include one of our digitization projects in our department or it could be some of the other related departments that we are assisting with digital transformation data quality. Um you know what analysis everything you do in records management whether you're doing active records legacy records policies procedures um you you are analyzing something. So analysis is a big part of what we do as records managers. So you're going to get some of that in everything that you do in the internship. We also have a pretty robust training program. our interns get to take that training. Um, that's the first task you have to do is do our online training modules so that when you start working on projects, it's really just some additional hands-on project specific training and then you can dive right in and start, you know, doing the work assigned to you with each project. We do have a fair amount of compliance related projects that we do. Uh, that I work, you know, St. Louis is highly regulated. All of our activities that we do with wildlife, whether it's exhibiting animals or shipping animals, importing, exporting animals, doing education with biofax and things like that, everything is regulated. So, and with that compliance comes a lot of impact to records management. So, it's uh it's pretty cool from that standpoint. It also increases awareness about jobs that are records management jobs in zoos and aquariums. We actually one of my newest employee started out as an extern. She was already done with school, so she didn't do an internship. But then we had another internship from another ICRM academic partner school who discovered in the internship that she loves records management, but she also loves animals and she had no idea you could do that in zoos. She ended up becoming a registar for a well-known zoo in the zoo profession. Um, so the why in our successful virtual internship program, I do think that because we have such a strong virtual program, it really does appeal to those of you that are in an online academic degree program. Um, the accessibility aspect of that is significant. We are I am working because we have a wellestablished virtual internship program. Now I work with students from six or seven different universities around the US. Um we are investigating and trying to um get some approval from my employer to offer a paid internship at some point. So we're at the beginning stages of that. But nonetheless, even currently we get anywhere from 5 to 15 interns a year from those different programs. So it's I think it is pretty it's kind of competitive at this point but we do try to give as many uh students access to what we do as possible. I am highly invested in student success and like I said many of our e interns stay on willingly. They want to stay on and work on the projects that they've started on to see them completed. And of course that gives them more time uh in the trenches working with what I hope is uh a REIM program that is um you know established and set in global best practices for REM at a major employer. St. Louis Zoo is a a large zoo. It's a you know a pillar of our community. We get over three million people a year that come to the St. zoo plus we have two additional properties so it is good on your resume. Um and then I also work with students on the professional development of the opportunities that the greater the wider profession has to making sure that they are aware of those opportunities. One of those is the uh ARMA student ambassador program. So I have nominated a lot of our interns and externs. Uh I teach also so I also work with uh students. I can't have a student interning for me while I'm teaching but I have had a few of my former students after they were out of my course and I was no longer teaching they were able to come and and um Andy's one of those examples. So, okay, let's get the next slide. I was trying to advance it myself and realize I don't have the power to do that. Can someone advance to the next slide? Thank you. Um, so students must create and use a one of a couple of the requirements of the internship once you're on boarded. Um, I'm not sure. Did we miss a slide? There we go. Good. Thank you. Um, you'll first do an interview with me and um, then we will have you submit your application. The the application process on San Jose State, there's a link there where it takes you to the zoo's actual volunteer services department. We actually don't use that. um the student if they will contact me directly at the email provided. Um the the easier way to do it is for me to send you um the application that I use for my students because I have so many I don't really have to go through their process which is everyone is submitting applications for all kinds of internships throughout the zoo all the we all different departments. Um when I use the application they've given me to use with my students um they just are with uh interns specifically that are coming through the San Jose State site or some of the other academic partners I work with. I just send them that they complete it. They send it back to me. I send it in to volunteer services. Total process is about two weeks to be approved. Um they they do a background check. they no longer for uh virtual interns and for my interns they no longer have the requirement for the drug testing. So the time involved to get approved is a little less than it used to be. You do have to complete an NDA. Once you're approved, that's one of the first things I'll have you do. Uh we'll get an email address account issued. You'll use that email address specific to the St. Louis Zoo for all the work that you do. you'll complete your NDA and then I will assign the online training. One of those is all the policies and procedures that you have to adhere to and then um we have training for both of our two core systems interns will be working in. One of them is the zoological information management system which is all of the data, all of the animal records that animal keepers, veterinarians, a lot of different people do direct entry into that system 24/7, 365 days a year. So the data quality control process that we have is looking at collection activity that's reported to our department. what what the keepers enter, what we enter, and we look to make sure that the source information, the reports matches up to what was actually entered in the database. Then we have our electronic document management system, which is a lot of documentation is held in there. a lot of different types of documentation. But we are also doing big legacy system digitization projects which is such a great uh opportunity for students that are getting uh uh records and information management, information governance type degree because you know most likely those are the kinds of systems you're going to be working in when you get a job or you're already working in now. So, it just gives you another example of systems and how they work and what you can do with them and um what the AI component is with those systems. Um because that is certainly something a lot of us are having to deal with and look at. We'll do a work plan for you with all the various projects included. Usually the quality control is the first project after you take your training and then depending on the number of hours that you have to complete what our needs are at the time which projects need to be completed first that's how I prioritize what the students work on um you might also get an opportunity to develop a training course the same types of courses that you had to take to learn how to do the work. Um, we're always finding that we need a training course for to train interns, to train externs or new hires on specific projects. Um, that just makes it faster, makes it much faster for people to learn the projects. They're there for a short period of time. The better the training can be, the more we can, you know, obviously accomplish. Next slide. um the way we manage the virtual thing, these are really important um aspects of it being successful for us and you. So once you're on boarded and you've completed your training and you start your first projects, we will have you create an email and that will just be a continuous thread. You just reply and uh you know send it from the same thread every day. you're working asynchronously, you will just, you know, at which time you stop work, you'll send that email that says what you were able to do, your progress, and then any questions, any area you need feedback where we can give you immediate, you know, answers to your questions. That's way you're not doing work incorrectly and having to go back and redo something. So, we try to be as responses as we can uh to keep you moving along without issues. Um you will enter your time in the zoo's volunteer timekeeping timekeeping system. Um that includes any recurring meetings that you'll have. We'll have a recurring meeting every week so we can see each other on Zoom. We can talk about you know whatever you need to talk about. We can provide guidance additional training um and all of that your training your meetings and then your actual work are time that counts towards meeting your hours. And then we'll do a final St. Louis Zoo evaluation. Um, and this is provided once your hours are met. We're at the last date of the, you know, the internship and then you can take a copy of that with you. And depending on project, students may be offered an opportunity to continue on as an extern. We just kind of see how it goes. We gauge the students interest and then if there's enough work, we you may get that opportunity to do that. I think that was my last slide. Yep, >> that was wonderful. Thank you for sharing all of those um fine details about what a sophisticated internship program you have built and we're so lucky that we're part of it. >> Um I'm excited to introduce Andy from the MARA program. he's going to share a little bit with you folks about his experience doing an internship and after that we will um transition into a few minutes of Q&A for all the panelists. >> Thanks Sheila. So uh I was writing some notes down here about kind of my experience. Um I can't stress the importance enough of doing internships and this kind of thing. uh in my undergrad for film and video production I had two internships which both prove beneficial in their own ways. Uh I mean specific benefits I mean a lot of things have been covered by the by the panel already but you know you find out what you like and what you don't like. Uh obviously it looks good on a resume. It'll build your network and um it may open a door at a position postgrad for you at the company because you are known and uh they they know your work quality and stuff like that. So um from a from a company perspective, a known entity is always better than some stranger on the internet. Um also I I would encourage you if you do do the internship or you know whatever configuration it takes is to make sure you get a recommendation letter as well as that always helps. Um, I've done volunteer work at film archives and I plan to uh volunteer at an auto museum uh after uh after graduation just because those are fun things uh for me. Um I wish I'd looked into what SJSU has to offer in regards to the internship program, the different variations earlier. So, it's great that you're all here getting yourselves informed because you can't do it uh soon enough. Even if you're if even if it's your first semester, uh I would, you know, still start thinking about it. I was notoriously late with all deadlines all the time everywhere. So, uh it's it's always good to uh especially asynchronous learning environment to to do that. Um I was at uh uh ARA InfoCon in Phoenix with Ray Sheila and Dr. Hoffman and uh Sheila and Dr. Hoffman and I were at the SJSU booth and I was really surprised at the number and variety of companies who stopped by uh and who are interested in setting up internships with SJSU. So there's a lot of variety there for sure. Um and uh you might find something that that you didn't realize uh would be uh uh something that would you'd be interested in. Um I appreciate uh Dr. Hoffman mentoring me and providing the guidance and getting my internship set up with Ry, which uh I did over the summer of this this past summer. Uh it was three credits and it was I found it to be totally manageable. You just got to budget your time like anything else in this kind of asynchronous world. Um it was great exposure uh interesting to see how records management and uh uh microfilm and AI are kind of integrated into zoo life which I never really thought it was a thing but is it is definitely a thing and it was uh really interesting to kind of look through all the past records and see just the journeys that the animals take too which which is kind of neat. Um, I got some experience with data migration and electronic an electronic records management system docuare that is commonly used which again put it on your resume. That's a that's a buzz word that somebody might see that that might put you up above somebody else. Uh, some experience with microfilm processing and AI and OCR which are big buzzwords as well. Um, if you like animals, I definitely recommend it. Uh there's a lot of opportun opportunities there in the future and it may lead to a zoo position somewhere of which you may had not may not have considered before and I really value the experience working at the zoo with Ray. Um as far as going forward in the real world, I'm actually working with an aviation museum here locally in Southern California. And instead of bombarding them with my ideas, my first kind of meeting with them, I asked them what they needed. And it was kind of funny cuz they said, "Well, we've got this m we've got this room full of microfilm that would be really great to get digital." I'm like, "Really? Well, I just did an internship doing working with microfilm this summer." So, it actually absolutely dovetailed. I didn't plan it. I'm not lying. It it just worked. So, you don't know where your experiences are going to take you or what benefit they'll have for you. So, can't recommend it enough. Thanks. Okay, that was fantastic. We're at the point in the um >> Can I follow up on something really quick and um because I think it's important which is that um Andy mentioned going right up to the deadline and honestly I think that works if there's an internship in our database. If that internship is not in our database and you want to do an internship, please please please start early. There is a requirement for each internship site that they have what is called a university organization agreement in place. It's a contract between the site and the university and it's required by the CSU system which means it has to go through the CSU lawyers and if there are any changes that are going to be made to that and people working in K12 schools should pay particularly close attention to this because that is where it frequently happens but changes that are happening to that agreement can take up to 10 weeks to get approved. So, it's a very important that you get started on this as early as possible. >> Mine was more of a cautionary tale. >> Yeah. Right. It's and it works, I think, better if it's in the database, but if it's not in the database, um, people can get surprised. Okay. Other questions? >> Yeah. So, we can just continue to use the webinar chat to place our questions and I can moderate. Um, we have a question from um, Eric. Older student, retired film editor, took a community college class in library tech before entering the MLIS. Love the mission environment students and teachers. I'm really hoping to do a hybrid or in-person internship at a community college or a small college that shares similar qualities next fall. Any guidance? Um so I would start with that there are a number of community colleges and smaller colleges. I just approved one for Laney for example uh Laney College in Oakland with within the last week. So, um I would start with our database and start with um trying to uh maybe filter by that type of institution um and look for uh what is available. A lot of the institutions will say, "Hey, we're looking for somebody for spring of 2026, summer of 2026, fall of 2026." And so you can even like say, "Oh, here's who I want to start communicating with." Um, and that way you can reach out in that way. >> I will say there's a nice feature on our internship site um databases. If you go below the um the toggles with all the options, the newest internships appear right there. So the ones that Dr. Harlland has just approved, they appear underneath that. So, you get to see the the hot fresh ones and get get in there and apply for those early. Okay, we have a few more questions coming through. Dr. Harlland, do you have additional content to add? Um, we'll go to Boy, these are going through quickly. I should have had the Q >> just said the chat just blew up a little. >> I should have had the Q&A. >> Start reviewing them. Okay, I'm what I'm going to do is I'm going to close the Q&A. I'm sorry. I'm going to close the chat so that we can use the Q&A. It's a lot easier. You guys can access the Q&A. We will we will go through all the webinar questions, but we'll then we'll transition over to the Q&A um for incoming questions. And while she's doing that, um, Evelyn, I do believe that doing e portfolio and internship at the same time is doable. Um, Andy is nodding. Sounds like he did something similar. Um, it is just about managing your time. Um, but I do think it is manageable. >> So, Cara asks if volunteer work counts as work experience. It is. It can be a way to shore up something that you don't have, especially when you're applying for your first internships and that sort of thing. Um, I find it's often harder to make the case to an employer. You know, it's part of the reason that women who uh stay at home have a really hard time getting uh career on track again because the skills that you have don't necessarily get counted by employers if you haven't done them in some sort of like documented way with an organization. So, it can help, but it's not going to be a full substitute for a lot of folks. I will read. >> Go ahead and work through Nora's question. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. So, her first question, if a student secures an internship before the semester begins, how early can they submit the paperwork? As early as you want. Um, I can't issue you the information that you need to register until the university issues it, but that doesn't mean you can't submit it. Um, so I've had people submit while like in October for next spring. Um, if you already have a confirmed internship site, you need and they are not in our database, you need to reach out to me with your site supervisor so I can get them in your database and we can get that university organization agreement in place. That is a sticking point that UOA. So we that's why we really recommend early um if internships offer cross-ep departmental experience for example um yes you can structure your learning objectives to reflect multiple areas of responsibility um and what expectations and responsibilities site supervisors need to fulfill such as check-ins evaluations um Rey can you answer that and talk a little bit about what you were expected to do um in terms of time and those sorts of things. >> Can you repeat the first part of your question? >> Sure. The question is, what expectations and responsibilities do site supervisors need to fulfill such as check-ins, evaluations, and documentation, and how much time should they typically plan to commit? And I can answer part of that, but it might be better coming from your perspective. Yeah, I mean I I don't have those memorized or anything, but I mean I I think it's just baked in at this point where our process meets the school requirements because we're highly engaged with the students. They're working every week. They're working most days. Um we have regular meetings. We have regular email communications and they are completing training which is documented in our system. They are completing projects. I mean most the time we are able to move something to the next phase or complete it because of the work that the interns have done and we document we document that in detail in their St. Louis Zoo evaluation which they get a copy of. So, you know, a lot of times we're saying, um, this thing was completed because of the work of the intern. If the intern hadn't completed these tasks, we would not be able to do this. We would not be able to move this forward or advance this initiative to the next phase or to roll something out. Like for instance uh one of the interns completed the training course for part of our digitization project that like lessen the load on the staff of not having to do that training sort of in a Zoom meeting or stuff you know they created an online course and now that's one of the first things we do is we assign that training and by the time the student actually gets to the part where we're working on the project they all already have a really good idea of what to do. Does that answer your question? It's like I'm not checking a box going, did I? Okay, I met that requirement, met that requirement. I just think the program speaks for itself that the stuff that gets done, the things that students learn and the amount of time they're putting in, there's no way they couldn't have met the requirement. So Rey is amazing and does a lot that it differs a little in some other sites. Um but they are required to meet with you and um be in contact via email or Zoom meetings or in person and oversee your work. Uh there is an evaluation that we request at the end of the semester. Um, and I like I said, they also should be looking over your um, course learning objectives and and helping you write those. So, those are the that's like the most basic level. I would hope that I'll say supervisors were as hands-on as Rey, but we don't always have that. >> Well, you know, that's the basic level. Um I I teach also so I try to apply the same requirements that the school has for how we engage with students in teaching and all of that. So it's just to me it's just like the same thing you know. So okay let's go to the next question in our Q&A which you can access from the strip at the bottom of your browser window. Do we have to take the class if we apply to an internship from the database? I'm asking because there are still a number of electives I want to take and it costs money to actually take info 294 versus just doing the internship. >> Yes, we would prefer it. >> Yes, because they're reserved for people who need credits, right? For the >> Right. They're reserved for people who need the credits. Yeah. >> Michael asks, "I will not be eligible for an internship yet because I'm starting and short of the 19 units. I want to know what I can do to prepare for internships while I complete the required units. I I believe a number of people do that in in the situation and and Dar curious if this is how it works for you guys and Mara as well, but who um will do that um especially if it is an internship that is not in our database but that they're uh working towards um and that will eventually go into our database. And so yes, you can. Um but I yeah, it's not um yes, you can. That's a simple answer. Well, and some of the things you can do on the way would be things like uh making sure that you know pay, you know, keep track of the things that you're doing and learning and skills you're getting through the coursework, right? So when you start putting those internship applications together, a you know what you actually enjoyed, right? Like I love metadata. I think metadata is the coolest thing ever. A lot of people do not share that feeling, right? So for someone like me, you a role that requires a lot of metadata would be awesome. For someone who is like ah I need more people less metadata. Thank you. You would be looking at different sets. So paying attention getting to know yourself through the process as well as the field is one thing you could do to help uh prepare yourself. And then also you know being able to go when you apply for these internships say what do I need to learn? what's going to help get me where I want to go. >> Michael has a follow-up question which is asking whether he could reach out to the supervisor and network ahead of actually applying for the internship. What are your recommendations on that? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean Rey is saying yes. I think both Dr. Hoffman and I would agree that that is an appropriate a step to take. Andy can tell you I have shamelessly pushed him to network for the entire four years I've worked with him. >> Yeah. And to my benefit uh I I kicked and screamed, but uh I did go and I was glad that I did go. So, thank you. Um, as far as preparation things, Michael, some things that I recommend to students in the student services appointments is take advantage of your resources at high school, such as booking an appointment with Kim Doherty, our career consultant, having your resumes and cover letters critiqued by our consultant at the career center, um, who is Carrie Mcnite. So before you're ready to apply for the internship, have all your materials looked at and and revised and then just making sure your social media, your LinkedIn is up to date. If you have projects from your classes, you can actually add those to your LinkedIn um as files. So let's go to the next question. Um Teresa asked, can we reelaborate that university agreement thing? How would I explain that to a potential site supervisor? The more common term is anou or memorandum of understanding. So if you tell your site supervisor that you need anou with the university they'll know um is the thing. But again this is a place where reach out to me and let me reach out to the site supervisor because I have all of the information and details. I will also tell you that there is a site supervisor handbook um that is available and open on our website if you're curious about what it is from their perspective or what we're suggesting for them. >> Ava asks Oh, go ahead. >> No, I was just going to ask her real quick. Maryanne, you said the theou are you meaning or are you referring to like a site receptor agreement? >> That might be what you guys call it. Yeah, I mean it's been different things. Yeah, >> it's it's just a contract that says that covers liability issues essentially. >> Yep. >> So Ava asks, um, the organization I am considering told me they were already in your database, but I don't see them listed in the drop- down menu. Is there another place I should check? >> This is yet another place where I'm going to ask you to directly um reach out to me. Um, my name is on the screen and it's maryann.harlandsjsu. Um uh and when I keep saying that and I'm also linked on the web page in a million different places, but um it's possible they just need to update and I I can go in to the older internship and see if it's because they need to update the university organization agreement. If they just need to say, "Hey, yeah, we do want somebody in spring of 2026." And I just need to hit a check box. There are just a few little things there. So if you let me know who the organization is, I can look into that for you because I have backend access. Okay, we have reached the end of the open questions. If there are any more questions, we have a couple minutes. I will go ahead and ask Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Harlland and Rey as well. Has there have there been any um little anecdotes you might share with us or tips or have there ever been any disappointing exp My lights just went off. Sorry. Have there ever been any disappointments um where internship um placements didn't work out and what would those um obstacles look like or do you have any other things to share? I'll wait or make sure no one else is ready to speak. Go ahead. >> There was another question in the background chat I was just handling. Um, so anecdotes, issues to share. Is that what you asked? >> Yeah. Anything little nuggets of advice? Anything? I I would just say one of the things that and again whether I'm teaching a course or I'm doing an internship I really have a strong appreciation for um whether you're in midc career going back trying to get your masters or you're making a switch to a completely different field maybe your life changed after co or whatever prompted it or you're just you're trying to make a shift you're trying to advance yourself in your career, doing programs online and even doing these internships online. Just the relationship development piece of trying to navigate that, especially if you're completely switching careers or you're just brand new, you're emerging professional coming in um building the relationships and that's why I said the leadership and advocacy, self- advocacy to begin with is so important. those relationships, you may have to put more effort than you feel like you need to. Or maybe you're an introvert and that's hard for you. Whatever the case is, I just can't stress it enough. And I really try to work in those internships. I try to get students if they're struggling in those areas as much information as I can to help them engage to get them to a conference through the ambassador program or whatever it takes because you know you're in a fabulous program and hopefully you're going to have a credential behind your name. But all of that is great. It's great to be great but it's all about people. When you're records manager, it's all about all the people that you are supposed to be servicing and helping and advancing and taking care of all those resources for your organization. You cannot do this job in isolation. And so the sooner you dig into building the relationships and being a great advocate for yourself and what you need, what you need to run a department, the program, what you need to advance your skills, the sooner you do that, the better. So I I just wanted to impart that just wanted to share that that to me that is such an important part if you're doing if if anyone that's doing an internship or working with students that should be emphasized. I will say I've had one student who really struggled with a particular placement and then did okay with race. So, and a lot of that was about kind of flexibility and expectation. Uh, because you don't know what a site is going to be like until you go there. Uh, and I know quite a few other students who did f just fine in the site the students struggled with. And so, making sure that you have a certain degree of openness and flexibility that um, it's not necessarily going to be what you've made up in your imagination can make a big difference into how well you enjoy and succeed in the site. I you know this is interesting because I think this actually responds to Teresa's question in the um webinar which is um additional benefit of signing up for info294 if you have an internship that you know just doing it on as an on-site professional thing and one of those is that there is support if you are doing it through a 294 with Dr. Hoffman or with myself or the organizational where if you are struggling you can reach out to us um and we can help you navigate that with your soft skills and how to build out those skills and um sort of mentor you through any sort of placement concerns that you are having um in a way that if you are just out there on your own you may not necessarily. So you may not necessarily be able to yeah there are things that can go wrong. Um almost always that is not the case but if those things do go wrong it is helpful to have an organization like San Jose State and professors like Dr. Hoffman and myself who can help you navigate that. >> I would like to say one other thing that uh Dr. Dr. Huffman brought up in regards to personal development is take advantage of the high school uh travel grant program um either as a volunteer or just as a participant. Um it doesn't get enough it from what I've understand people don't utilize it enough. So I just thought I'd mention that. Uh I'm glad that I did and I appreciate again Dr. Hoffman uh doing the nudging on that. Um so it it it really helps especially if you are an introvert like myself. Um it forces you to get out there and meet people and uh meet people outside of this box. Uh which is also fun too. So >> that's great. What an excellent panel we've had today. I'm so excited that this came together. Um students, I hope you enjoyed interacting with um all of our panelists. I want to thank them for spending some part of their lunch break with us today. Um thank you so much. We will um send out the link to this recording hopefully next week. Um again, we have so many resources on our website so you can find a lot of the answers to your questions. Um follow up with high schools.edu. That's the student services email address and we can point you in the direction. Um thank you again to all of our panelists and I hope everyone has a lovely holiday next week. Um, we appreciate everyone for joining in this community discussion. Thank you for putting this together, Sheila. >> Oh, my absolute pleasure. Thanks everybody. Safe travels. >> Great discussion. Okay, bye.