To find an internship, part-time job or freelance opportunity that matches your particular needs, please contact Internship Coordinator Patty Machelor at pmachelor@arizona.edu.
Finding an Internship
Finding an internship is a time-consuming but worthwhile challenge. Completing an internship increases your chances of finding a job after graduation. Our students have interned locally, throughout Arizona, across the nation and around the world, including at the Arizona Republic, Arizona Luminaria, the Tucson Spotlight, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the LA Times, NBC, CBS, Sinclair Media, Las Vegas Review-Journal, ESPN and MLB.
Internship Credit
To receive journalism credit for an internship, you must be a University of Arizona undergraduate or graduate student with a journalism major or minor and have passed JOUR 205 (Reporting the News) with a C or better. You may interview for an internship while in-progress in JOUR 205/JOUR 506, but will not be enrolled for credit until your final grade for the class has posted.
You must meet with the Internship Coordinator and review the offer for a journalism internship you have received to have it approved for credit. In some cases – marketing and public relations internships, for example – the School of Journalism will not offer credit, but you will be able to receive credit through the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Consult the Internship Coordinator to understand from whom you will get credit.
To receive internship credit, you need to:
- Review the University's internship policies and guidelines.
- Complete a work-plan, then have the form signed by the company offering you the internship.
- Review the credit requirements with the internship coordinator before being enrolled to receive academic credit for the internship. Please note that tuition applies to internship credit.
- Undergraduates: Review requirements for part-time (2 units) and full-time (3 units) internships.
- Graduate Students: Review requirements for graduate internship (1-3 units).
- Complete the student self-evaluation form at the end of the internship along with submitting work samples.
- Ensure the supervisor completes this supervisor evaluation form.
Internship FAQs
The internship must be a journalism internship approved by the school’s Internship Coordinator. You must have completed JOUR 205, Reporting the News, to be eligible. Students must be registered for internship within the first 10 days of the semester. You must be registered via the School’s internship coordinator. No changes will be made after that date.
After you have been offered and accepted an internship that has been approved for credit by the school’s Internship Coordinator, there is paperwork to fill out to add the class. Make an appointment with the Internship Coordinator to go over requirements and complete forms.
Yes, but remember that you do have to pay tuition to earn academic credit for any internship. Discuss this with the School’s Internship Coordinator.
Read the internship listserv emailed to UA journalism majors weekly and follow up. Check out our How to Find an Internship page. Attend the internship fairs held at UA Journalism every semester. Use your connections – ask friends, professors/instructors and others you come in contact with to help you set up an interview. Search the internet and LinkedIn yourself for media where you’d like to work and contact the editors or producers there.
No. The University of Arizona does not grant transfer credit from any institution for internships.
The faculty of the UA School of Journalism strongly believes that students should have reporting and ethics training taught by our faculty before you undertake a journalism internship so that you can contribute more to the newsroom and gain more from the experience.
Yes, just as you would for any credits that appear on your transcript. Students often think they don’t have to pay for internships during the fall and spring semesters, but that is usually because they are already paying tuition for a full-time schedule and the internship is included in that full-time tuition.
Someone who has education and/or many years’ experience in journalism who will be able to give you editorial guidance and training at the internship.
Some media organizations are looking for people to contribute articles, but may not have an experienced supervisor who can guide you through the editorial process from start to finish. Others are start-ups without a proven record. You may choose to contribute an article to these sites to generate a clip, but you won’t be able to get internship credit for it. Consult with the School’s Internship Coordinator to determine if credit is possible.