Internship General Information
Internship applicants MUST be enrolled in school in order to receive credit for these experiences. Internships are extremely beneficial for networking and those seeking to acquire practical work experience in their chosen field of study. We encourage all of our students looking to do an internship for credit to secure the opportunity three to six months from the time they want to do the experience to allow time to prepare and process their application.
Why do an internship?
- It will help you work towards the profession/position you are looking for as a direct result of completing your internship.
- Gain relevant work experience in the industry, position, and organization you wish to work to draw on for future job opportunities.
- Meet people to connect with (in country/region and industry) and grow your network for future job/internship and career opportunities.
- Work in a multicultural, diverse, international environment that will help you learn to contribute to a global workforce.
- Apply practical application to your education to you enhance your on-campus experience and coursework.
Registration
Students will register within the semester in which the internship begins. If the internship spans multiple semesters, it will be registered in both semesters with credits awarded proportionally to the amount of work associated with each semester
Eligibility
Students should demonstrate a sound understanding of the institution’s objectives for awarding internship credit and a high level of maturity as they will be representatives of the University to employers and others that they come in contact with.
To this end, the BYU–Hawaii internships policy has outlined that a student must:
- Have completed at least 60 credits total to be eligible to do an internship for credit.
- Have completed at least 8 credits within the field of study.
- Be in good standing academically. Achieve a 2.0 GPA in the semester prior to their internship.
Academic Credit
Internship credit is awarded based on the normal academic standard of 45 hours/credit/semester. These hours may include preparation, training, reflection, writing, completion of the internship, and final presentation. The internship credit awarded will reflect the actual work completed and align with the internship agreement/MOU. This will be pre-determined by the internship coordinator and outlined in the internship agreement between students and faculty.
- A Handshake application is required. If you need assistance with the application, please email Career Services at careerservices@byuh.edu.
- Your internship should be mapped by your academic advisor and approved by your internship coordinator. If you are unsure of who your internship coordinator is, please email us.
- Financial Services, IWORK (if applicable), International Student Services (ISS), Residential Life, Health Services, PCC, or BYU–Hawaii employer may also need to provide approval for your internship.
- Students must confirm medical coverage for their internship before leaving on the experience. Health Services can assist with domestic internships, please reach out to Beth Martin at beth.martin@byuh.edu. For international experiences, Career Services will help you with applying for insurance through GeoBlue, please email Career Services at careerservices@byuh.edu. See more info about GeoBlue on our Internships page.
Internships Without Credit
Some of our students have opted to pursue internships without credit. These independent experiences are at the student's discretion and do not need university approval if they are not receiving academic credit for the experience. We do suggest if a student opts to do one of these experiences that they discuss any employment matters related to COVID-19 with their employer and look for ways to safely complete the experience. The University will not have any control over the experience and will consider this a private employment relationship between the student and the internship provider.
Visa Requirements
For our international students, please take note as this information is important to your internship experience and visa requirements. When registering for your internship, international students may take no less than 12 credits for the fall and winter semesters and no less than 8 credits for the spring semester. If an international student is on an approved reduced course load (RCL) or annual leave semester, the student must be enrolled with full-time credits immediately after the RCL or annual leave semester. Annual leave will only be granted after the international student has been in school for two full semesters. You can read more about the requirements for your visa status under Maintaining Visa Status on the International Student Services page.
No Retroactive Credit
To receive credit for an internship, a student must enroll in an internship course prior to beginning the experience. No credit may be given retroactively for internship work undertaken in the past that is now finished.