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 Internship  in  Economics  

Spring  2013
Economics  398  –  Sections  1  &  2       Arranged  Schedule    

Instructor: Ronald M. Nate, Ph.D.

Office: Smith 104
Telephone: Office: 496-3810; Home: 356-7375
Email: nater@byui.edu
Office Hours: MTWThF: 11:30am-1:00pm, or by appointment.

Course Objectives
The objectives of the internship are to: provide students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge
gained in the classroom to a professional internship position; allow students to gain valuable work
experience while making an authentic contribution to their employer; allow students to explore future
career opportunities; enable students to establish contacts and professional career networking links in
their field; and enhance students portfolios through the internship experience.

Prerequisites
Students must have completed a minimum of 75 credits including 30 credits of the Foundations
requirements for a Bachelor’s degree, and at least seven of the nine 100, 200, and 300 level courses of the
Economics Core. Those seven of the nine 100, 200, and 300 level courses of the Economics Core must
be completed with a minimum 2.5 GPA prior to taking the internship.

Placement Criteria
The internship must be directly related to the student’s field of study and provide the student with a
significant learning experience that allows the student to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom.
The intern’s direct supervisor must be willing to teach and evaluate the intern and provide the intern with
opportunities to complete the goals and requirements of the internship. A Master Internship Agreement
form must be completed by the internship provider and approved by the university’s internship office.
The Student Internship Agreement must be completed and approved by both the department internship
director and the university internship director. The student must complete a minimum of 270 hours of
work on-site (not telecommuting) for the internship credits. Although a certain amount of repetitive and
mundane tasks can be expected these must be limited and offset by more substantial work.

Grade Items Grade Scale

Item Points
Pre-Internship Requirements 100 A 920-1000 C 720-759
Monthly Status Progress Reports (3 reports) 300 A- 890-919 C- 690-719
Internship Summary Report 300 B+ 860-889 D+ 660-689
Time Requirements (270 hours, mandatory) 100 B 820-859 D 620-659
Student Evaluation (online) 100 B- 790-819 D- 590-619
Employer Evaluation (online) 100 C+ 760-789 F < 590
Total Points 1,000
Pre-Internship Requirements:
Prior to beginning the internship the student must complete the following:
1) Print and have approved the internship registration form. (The form is online at the Career
and Internship Office website.)
2) Register with the BYU-Idaho Academic Discovery Center (Manwaring Center)
3) Verify that the intern provider has completed the Master Agreement.
4) Submit to the instructor a pre-internship resume and cover letter (see last page).

Internship Requirements of the Student

During the internship the intern must:
1) Decide on a special project during the first four weeks of the internship (see description
below). It must be approved by the experience provider.
2) Submit by email three monthly progress/status reports to instructor; each due on the last day
of the month (see last page). Describe what you have accomplished during the past month,
and what you plan to accomplish during the upcoming month. One page max.
3) Complete the special project.
4) Complete the time requirements (270 hours on site) as outlined on the student agreement.
5) Complete and submit internship summary report.
6) Complete the student internship evaluation (online).
7) Verify that the internship provider has submitted his/her evaluation and recommendation letter.

Special Project
During the first four weeks, the intern is to meet with the experience provider and decide upon a special
project that the intern will complete during the internship. The goal of the special project is to allow the
intern to apply problem-solving skills to a challenge or research questions facing the business or agency.
Application of previously-learned economic principles is required for this project. A description or
statement of a problem is not sufficient. You must bring economic principles, analysis, and application to
bear on your subject. All data used in your project must be shown in your special project, unless under a
proprietary restriction by the experience provider. This project is to be completed as part of the workload
of the internship. At the end of the internship, a report on this project will be submitted (within the
internship summary report), and will be graded based on: 1) ideas, insights and analysis; 2) flow of the
concepts/strengths of the arguments; 3) grammar, structure and typographical errors; and 4) referencing
and sourcing. An outline of the project should be included in the final project.

Online Internship Evaluation Report (via email)

Complete the student evaluation of the internship that will be emailed to you two weeks prior to the end
of your internship. This evaluation must be completed for you to receive a grade for the internship (see
last page). (If you do not receive the email from career services, please contact them so that you will be
able to meet this requirement.) More information about the evaluation, as well as a contact email address
for career services is available at the career and internship services website.

Internship Requirements of the experience provider

1) Complete the Master Agreement form.
2) Approve the special project.
3) Provide opportunities and training for the intern to complete the learning objectives and
special project of the internship.
4) Complete the online evaluation of the intern, including the intern’s participation as a team
member. This evaluation may be shared with the intern if the employer wishes.
5) If warranted, write a letter of recommendation for the intern. The original letter is to be given
to the intern, with a copy to the instructor.
Internship Summary Report
At the end of the internship, the student will complete a summary report consisting of five summary
sections, as noted below. This report is due at the end of the semester (see last page). The report must be
compiled into a document with each section clearly identified. The report should demonstrate your best
professional presentation skills.

1) Company Section
Provide a report on the company, describing the history, culture, products, leaders and vision
of the company or organization. (2-4 pages)

2) Internship Report Section

Provide a summary about your experience which includes the following information (4-8
pages):
a. a job description for your position as an intern
b. the skills and coursework relevant to the internship
c. a summary of what you learned from the internship
d. a discussion of your relationship with your experience provider and co-workers.
Include here insights gained as a member of a team, and an evaluation of your team’s
effectiveness, cooperation and support
e. identify areas where you could have been better prepared to meet the internship
requirements either personally or in the curriculum
f. identify shortcomings of the internship experience and discuss ways that these
shortcomings might be overcome
g. discuss how the internship experience has influenced career plans
h. discuss what advice you would give to another student preparing for an internship.

3) Special Project Section

Summarize the outline and results of the special project. The student presents a background
on the topic, a summary of appropriate previous research; a statement of the problem; his/her
approach to complete the project, and the final results or outcome of the work (minimum 4
pages). References and sources should be attached to the paper where appropriate.

4) Resume Section
Provide an updated resume which includes a brief one-paragraph summary of the internship
experience.

5) Report of Contacts Section

Provide a listing of the professional network you have developed during your internship
experience. Show the name, titles, address, and telephone numbers of the individuals in your
network.
Student  Checklist:  

X   Item   Due  Date  

   

□ Pre-Internship Requirements April 30th

□ April Report April 30th

□ May Report May 31st

□ June Report June 30th

□ Internship Summary Report (The BIG one!!) July 19th

□ Meet Internship Time Requirement (270 hours) July 19th

□ Online Evaluation by student July 19th

□ Verify that Employer has done online evaluation July 19th