Internships in Business Administration, Business Communication, and Information Systems

An internship can be an exciting part of your education that supplements your academic knowledge, promotes personal development, and provides professional preparation. While on an internship, you can learn more about your chosen profession, meet new people, and gain self-confidence. Having an internship will also aid your job search as many companies use an internship to pre-screen prospective employees.

A business administration, business communication, or information systems internship is a part-time or full-time work experience that lets you integrate your formal study with practical work experience. As an intern, you are usually paid for your work (salary and benefits are determined by your employer), and you have the option to receive academic credits for your experience.

While many full-time internships are completed during the summer, other students take a fall and/or spring semester away from campus to complete a full-time internship. Students registering to earn credit for a full-time internship retain full-time student status during the internship semester. Part-time internships are often completed while taking classes.

College of Business students may earn university credit for their internship or may elect to have their college-approved internship recorded on their university transcript as a non-credit learning experience. Internship credit requires additional activity beyond the internship work experience. See your major department for additional details.

How to Set Up and Register for an Internship

Work with a company, your faculty advisor, the Handshake system, and the Internship Coordinator to get your experience set up.

1. Obtain a written contract for employment in the BCOM, BSAD, or IS-related field for the semester in which you wish to enroll.
2. Then, check with your academic advisor to see how the internship course will fit into your degree program and how many credits you will require.
3. Log into the Handshake system and follow the instructions to apply for approval for your internship experience.

Using Handshake to Apply for Approval of Your Internship

1. Go to www.uwecjoinhandshake.com
2. Login with your UW-Eau Claire credentials.
3. Under “Career Center” at the top right of the screen, click “Experiences”.
4. Click “Request an Experience” to be directed to the reporting form.
5. Under “Experience Type”, choose the appropriate internship form for your department.
6. Fill out all information in the reporting form:
7. Select the term in which you are doing your experience.
8. Search for your employer (if you found your internship via Handshake it should appear when you begin typing). If it does not appear, type it in.
9. Add the location where your experience is taking place (city, state).
10. Select a relevant industry related to your experience.
11. Add employer supervisor’s relevant contact info (phone number, email).
12. Add your job title (again if found via Handshake, this will appear for you), the specific department working for (if applicable), and start and end dates of the experience.
13. Select “Internship” as the type of experience you have under job type.
14. Choose employment type, enter salary information, the date experience was offered to you, and “Yes” that you accepted the offer.
15. Continue to fill out your specific department questions (some may be duplicated).
16. When finished, click “Request Experience” at the bottom.

Registering for the Internship Course

To register for the internship course, schedule an appointment with Dr. Lentz.  The purpose of this appointment is to verify the internship satisfies the requirement for professional work, to verify the number of credits to be taken and consider any other course credits you may be taking in parallel, as well as to create appropriate learning goals for your experience.

At the beginning of the semester of your internship, you will be able to manage all the requirements of the internship through the Course Management System (Canvas).

How to Check the Status of Your Internship Application

1. Go Handshake and login with your UW-Eau Claire credentials.
2. Under “Career Center” at the top right of the screen, click “Experiences”.
3. Click “View Details” on the your internship.
4. Scroll down to the approval section to view the status.