Students Assessment of a Semidirected Internship Program

Internships can be a valuable experience for geography majors, helping them confirm their choice of an area of emphasis in the discipline, giving them real world experience, and providing contacts that can help them gain full-time employment. This article examines student perception of the relative effectiveness of a semidirected internship program. The program relies on students finding their own internship rather than on programmatic linkages between a department and an employer. Analysis of survey responses of students completing the internship program over a five-year period indicates that students viewed their intern experience very positively, with the least satisfaction related to the level of constructive criticism they received of their work and involvement in discussion of their completed work assignments. (Contains 6 tables and 6 figures.)