GGY 498—Internship in Geography

  Spring, Summer, and Fall 2011, Dr. Hines, 3 credits

The Geography Internship course is designed to give students practical experience as professional geographers. 

Students who meet the following requirements may enroll with the professor’s permission.

Enrollment criteria: 

1. Student must have junior or senior standing.

2. Student must have the prerequisites of GGY 270 (Planning) and/or GGY 220 (Cartography) and/or GGY 328 (GIS) or GGY 230 (Weather and Climate) and permission of the Director.

3. Student must have an overall 2.5 GPA.

4. Student must secure his or her own employment in a position with an approved agency.

Course requirements: 

1. Employment must be secured for a period of at least three months for at least ten hours per week or about 120 hours.  Work can be on a paid or volunteer basis.  If paid, the student will negotiate the salary with the employer.

2. The employer must agree in writing to hire the student for the specified time and to participate in monitoring of the student’s progress.

3.  The intern will meet with the professor, email reports of activities, and participate in a meeting with the other interns to discuss their work.

4.  The student will be visited at work over the course of the semester by the professor, who will monitor their progress on the job and discuss their work with the on-site supervisor.  The on-site supervisor will send a written evaluation of the student's performance at the end of the internship.

5.  The student will write a professional report at the end of the semester, chronicling their job and the agency where they interned. 

Grades are Pass/Fail and will be based on job performance as described by the student’s immediate supervisor, weekly reports,  participation with other interns, and the final professional report.

A list of approved participating agencies is available to qualified students from Dr. Elizabeth Hines,

UNCW Department of Geography & Geology,

124 DeLoach Hall, 962-3012, hinese@uncw.edu.