Cal Poly SLO Internships: A Guide for College Students

Internships and co-ops represent pivotal opportunities for college students, offering practical, real-world experience aligned with their career aspirations. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the "Learn by Doing" philosophy strongly encourages and prepares students for these highly sought-after positions. This article provides a comprehensive overview of internships at Cal Poly SLO, covering their significance, available resources, and relevant policies.

The Value of Internships

Internships serve as a crucial stepping stone in a student's career journey. The experience gained as an intern significantly enhances competitiveness in the job market, strengthens resumes, and potentially leads to a higher starting salary. Internships also provide an opportunity to develop essential job search and networking skills, often culminating in full-time employment after graduation.

Resources for Finding Internships

Cal Poly's Career Services offers a wealth of resources to aid students in their search for internships and jobs, including listings of available positions. In addition, many individual colleges and departments maintain their own listings of internship opportunities tailored to their students.

Internship Opportunities at Cal Poly SLO

Cal Poly offers a variety of internship programs to enhance students' professional skills and contribute to university initiatives. These internships cater to undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines. The university seeks students with skills, experiences, and interests that contribute to fostering an inclusive climate on campus.

The following are examples of internship opportunities on campus:

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Cal Poly's Cross Cultural Centers (CIX) Internship Program

The Cross Cultural Centers (CIX) at Cal Poly offers a robust internship program for undergraduate and graduate students. CIX interns bring a variety of skills, experiences, and interests to their roles, contributing to Cal Poly's efforts to foster an inclusive climate. CIX is often seeking students with strong graphic design skills, attention to detail, and an interest in equity, inclusion, and campus community building.

Here are some examples of CIX interns and their roles:

Office Programs and Initiatives Graduate Assistant: This role supports event coordination and planning and manages the CIX intern team.
Programs and Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Initiatives Graduate Assistant: This role supports equity-driven programming and efforts that advance the university’s HSI mission.
Lead Communications Intern: This role serves as the liaison between the intern team and professional staff on communications-related matters.
Communication Support Intern: This role assists with marketing and promotional materials for CIX.
CIX Student Intern: This role supports Black Student Success Initiatives and provides general support for the office.
HSI Student Intern: This role supports Cal Poly’s Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) initiatives.

External Internship Opportunities

Cal Poly students also have access to a wide array of external internship opportunities with local organizations, companies, and government offices.

Here are some examples of external internship opportunities:

Senator Alex Padilla's Office: Internships are available in Senator Alex Padilla’s six offices, including his District office at 1411 Marsh Street, Ste. 205, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Internships are also available in Washington D.C.
District Attorney’s Victim/Witness Assistance Division: Interns assist in this division, which handles criminal matters. Please note that these matters are confidential and may involve graphic and highly sensitive information.
The Civil Discourse mission: Interns support public discourse with respect for differences of opinion, the use of courteous and orderly communication to address conflict, and fact-based discussions to promote mutual learning.

Cal Poly Internship Policy

In accordance with California State University Executive Order 1064, Cal Poly has established a policy on internships to ensure educational value and student safety. Key aspects of the policy include:

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Definition: An internship is defined as an educational experience that formally integrates a student's academic study with practical experience in a cooperating organization. It is an off-campus activity for which a student receives academic credit. It is designed to serve educational purposes by offering experience in a service learning, business, non-profit, or government setting.
Exclusions: The policy does not apply to teacher preparation placements, clinical placements (e.g., counseling, physical therapy), or educationally related experiences that do not receive academic credit (e.g., summer employment).
Responsibilities:
- Departments: Departments are responsible for:
  - Ensuring that each internship site provides adequate educational experiences.
  - Approving or disapproving internship sites.
  - Completing a written summary of the internship site, retaining the summary, and making the summary available for review.
  - Identifying potential risks of the internship site, which may require a site visit.
  - Conducting annual reviews of internships for educational purposes and student safety.
  - Providing a plan to accommodate students with special needs, in consultation with the Disability Resource Center.
- Documentation: Departments must maintain the following documentation:
  
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  - Internship site approval form.
  - Student emergency contact form.
  - Learning agreement form signed by the student, internship site supervisor, and university representative.
  Departments must retain these documents for three years.
Credit: Undergraduate students may receive up to 12 semester units of credit for completing a full semester's cooperative education/internship course and submitting an acceptable final report.

Department-Specific Internship Information

Kinesiology

The Kinesiology department provides students with valuable fieldwork opportunities through local organizations and companies. Students are encouraged to seek out sites that align with their career goals. The selected site must have a qualified supervisor.

Psychology and Child Development

Internships are a cornerstone of the Psychology and Child Development programs, typically completed during senior year. Students are required to complete two quarters of internship, earning credit towards their major. Each quarter involves 120 hours of hands-on experience at a fieldwork site or faculty research lab. Students maintain weekly contact with a faculty supervisor and submit written reflections connecting their experiences to research and theory. These internships are typically done in a student's senior year (rarely, junior year) after they have taken PSY 323: Helping Relationships. Qualified students can also pursue research internships within faculty research labs and these experiences can count as one or both of the required internship experiences (CD/PSY 448 or CD/PSY 449).

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