Youth Internships and Job Shadows

Youth Internships

An internship is a temporary, hands-on learning opportunity that provides meaningful, career-related experience extending a student's education beyond the classroom. Internships may be paid or unpaid, for credit or not for credit, and for career-related experience at ISU or at an external (non-ISU) employer.

The department/unit offering the internship program is responsible for ensuring that the internship is meaningful and will serve to enhance the student's educational experience and career development.

Internships are not:

  • Jobs or volunteer work that provide little or no opportunity for students to learn about their career of interest
  • Jobs or volunteer work that are unrelated to the student's academic discipline
  • Jobs or volunteer work with little or no training, guidance, and supervision

Job Shadows

Job shadow experiences at ISU are most often requested by middle school and high school students to learn about an occupational area of interest. The experience may help students to make a connection between their classroom learning and application of those skills in the workplace. Job shadows are temporary (one day or less), unpaid visits during which a student observes and/or performs tasks in the work environment under supervision of faculty or P&S staff.

Supervisor Responsibilities

Youth job shadows and internships require on-site supervision by an ISU faculty or professional and scientific (P&S) staff member, and are subject to the Children in the Workplace policy if more than incidental or intermittent and not part of a registered youth activity, program or camp. Review the policy for activities covered by the policy and related requirements.

Procedures

Supervisors:

  • Complete and submit the Youth Job Shadow/Internship Registration Form via Cy Check.
  • If you are registering a youth internship, you must also complete and submit a Internship Program Request/Approval Form through the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost (at least four weeks before start date, if not already an approved program).
  • Office of Risk Management staff will work with supervisors and those who will be interacting with the youth intern(s)/job shadow participant(s) to complete required background checks and Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training.
  • Youth internship/job shadow participation agreements will be emailed to the supervisor once their registration request has been approved. Once the participation agreement has been completed and signed by both the youth participant and the participant’s parent/guardian, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to upload it to Cy Check.

Submit a Youth Internship or Job Shadow Request

 

Resources

Experiential Learning - Provost's Office

 

Contact

Brandy Cunningham
Youth and Volunteer Programs Manager
youth@iastate.edu
515-294-6856