The English Department Internship Initiative

SPRING 2024 EVENTS

Life After Rutgers with Alex Kasavin, RU English Class of '07:  Wednesday, February 21 @ 5:30pm in Murray 302.  A relaxed evening to meet RU English Department graduates and talk about how they pursued their interests and passions after Rutgers. Food and drink too! Alex Kasavin is a senior product manager on the Tech for Social Impact team at Microsoft, where he leads the development of data and AI products for the nonprofit sector. He previously served as a cloud solution architect for Fortune 500 enterprises, and for a nonprofit focused on K-12 educational equity. He is interested in technology that facilitates communication and creative collaboration. For more information, contact Debra Keates at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Weekly Internship Search Workshops:  Mondays @ 2pm in MU 011 and on Zoom, first half of spring semester.  Workshops on how to find and apply for summer internships. Come live or on Zoom. For more information, contact Debra Keates at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.for a comprehensive list of current internships.

 

About the Internship Initiative

Literary editor? Grant Writer? Teacher? Counselor? Spokesperson? Human Resources Director? Literary Agent? Marketing Manager? Legal Researcher? Technical Writer? Social Media Manager? Advertising Director? Museum Curator or Conservator? Librarian? Tour Guide? Event Planner? Policy Analyst? Recruiter? Reporter? Publicist? Author?

Let us help you learn to apply your humanities training professionally, identify and develop professional contacts, and discover meaningful post-graduate opportunities.

What is an internship?   

An internship is short-term, supervised employment in a profession related to your field of study. Internships allow you to expand upon and enhance academic knowledge and skills while gaining hands-on professional experience. They can be used to explore career options and make connections that help you decide what kind of jobs might interest you upon graduation, and also what kinds of work you want to avoid. 


Why should I do an internship… as a humanities major?

Gain Practical Experience: Internships provide you with real-world experience in your field of study. It allows you to apply what you've learned to actual situations and challenges.

Build a Professional Network: Connections build through internships can lead to mentorship, potential job offers, and valuable references. 

Explore Career Paths: English majors may not fully realize the wide range of potential career options open to them because of their skills and commitments. 

Implement Soft Skills:Internships demonstrate how the skills learned in English Department classes – communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and time management – are valuable to many professions. 

Enhance Your Resume: Having internship experience on your resume can set you apart from other job applicants. Employers value candidates with work experience.

Test Ideas About Your Future Career: An internship provides a glimpse into your future career, giving you a taste of what your daily work might be like. This can help you determine if a particular field or role aligns with your interests and goals.


Potential for Academic Credit: Some universities offer academic credit for internships, which means you can earn course credit while gaining practical experience. This can help you make the most of your academic and professional development.

Want to explore the possibilities?  Prepare a portfolio? Identify summer internship opportunities? Receive RU academic credit for an internship you already have lined up?

 

We have courses for you in Spring 2024: 

 

01:090:210  Career Explorations for English Majors (1.5 credits) is an opportunity to explore post-graduate paths taken by majors in English and other Language and Humanities programs and to practice your self-presentation.  

01:355:355  Writing in the Professions: Preparing for Careers in the Humanities (3 credits) is an intensive writing and research course for students with some idea of their intended direction; student leave this class with a ready-to-go portfolio.  

01:355:398 Internship (3 credits) may be used toward a Technical or Professional Writing Certificate or completion of their major requirements in the English Department. All placements must be approved by the Internship Director, and approval will depend both on the general suitability of the career field in question or the specific tasks and projects that the placement will entail. 

In addition, the English Department offers courses that will guide and rehearse post-graduate related skills: 

01:359:312 Literary Editing and Publishing: This class will explore the place and purpose of literary journals within the publishing world, examine contemporary literary journals—both print and online—and the responsibilities of the editor to writer and audience. We will begin by discussing the history and the current state of the publishing industry, including mainstream book publishing, independent presses, and literary magazines. We will attempt to answer questions like: What does “good writing” look like, and who gets to decide? How does an editor help a writer improve their work without taking away the ownership of it? To what extent should the author’s biography influence the reception of their work?

01:355:396:04 Conference Creation and Management:  Interns will create the 12th Annual Undergraduate Research Writing Conference at Livingston Student Center. 

Interns will select papers, organize, publicize, and run the URWC the day of the event. They will act as respondents/advisors to student-presenters as they develop their work for multimedia presentations and serve as marketing experts, creating press releases for RU news media, designing promotional materials, building a social media presence, and helping to design the multi-page conference on a permanent site at Rutgers.The conference is multidisciplinary: papers are drawn from all disciplines and schools at RU-NB. 

01:355:355:02 Legal Writing: An introductory course designed to help students read, write, and think like lawyers.  Students will be introduced to the basics of legal writing, including understanding jurisdiction and precedent, analyzing and interpreting case law, drafting predictive legal memoranda, writing an appellate brief, and preparing oral arguments. The class provides valuable preparation for law school..

01:355:315 Writing Grant Proposals:  Writing Grant Proposals is designed for students who hope to enter professional careers requiring knowledge of grant writing.  The course will teach students the mechanics of proposal writing and the political and social aspects of "grantsmanship," as they develop their skills in identifying sources of grant funding, doing useful research to support their applications, and tailoring their proposals to specific audience interests.  There will be several short writing assignments, an exam, and an independent project.  Students may also be asked to engage in a collaborative grant project to help build their skills in collaboration.  CESEP (formerly known as CASE) students will be expected to write a grant proposal specifically for their community partners.

01:355:342  Science Writing:  Students will refine their skills in presenting technical and scientific issues to various audiences while they critically examine social aspects of scientific information.  The course examines new opportunities for covering science (especially on the Internet), the skills required to produce clear and understandable prose about technical subjects, important ethical and practical constraints that govern the reporting of scientific information, and the cultural place of science in our society. They will complete a portfolio of writings.  Revision will be rewarded, and students are encouraged to seek publication for some of their work.

01:351:209  Introduction to Multimedia Composition: Students will examine how digital media has contributed to new modes of thinking about topics of social and cultural importance. Through assigned texts and selected videos, podcasts, and other examples of popular digital media we will be meditating on what creativity and communication means in the 21st century. Students will develop projects that utilize digital media in order to generate their own ideas around the question: what does it mean to be connected in the digital age?

01:351:303 Screenwriting for Film 

01:351:304 Screenwriting for Television

01:351:314 Documentary Filmmaking for Writers 

For general information: https://english.rutgers.edu/academics/undergraduate-91/internships.html.

For information about internship opportunities at Rutgers in the department’s Writing Program, including Editing, Professional Writing, and Tutoring: https://wp.rutgers.edu/internships