All Technological Leadership majors are required to complete 12 internship credits. Starting in the 2023 catalog year, this is broken down between 3 credits of internship prep courses and 9 credits of immersive internship work.
*if you are on an older catalog and have questions, please reach out to advising.
An internship is defined as a short-term, hands-on, supervised work experience with a professional organization that is designed to increase a student’s knowledge of a professional career field through significant learning objectives which are determined as part of the IPI 484 course.
In order to be eligible to register and complete IPI 484, students must meet the following requirements:
Be pursuing a B.S. in Technological Leadership
Have completed at least 30 credits by the internship start date
Have completed at least 6 credits of Inquiry courses and 6 credits of Making courses by the internship start date
Have a minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA at the time of the internship start date
Have completed the Internship Approval process and received final approval from the Tech Leadership Advisor
Submit all required end of semester documentation, including the Time Tracker and Student Self Evaluation Form
There are specific criteria used when evaluating internships for approval. Students can refer to the following guidelines to assess whether an opportunity may be suitable. All internships must be approved by the Tech Leadership Advisor prior to the start date.
The experience must correspond with an ASU Academic Calendar for session C in fall (Aug–Dec), spring (Jan– May) or summer (May–July).
Internships can be completed in-person, hybrid, or virtually.
The internship must have a direct and clear connection to technological leadership topics, issues, and skillsets.
Student Interns need to complete a minimum of 270 hours during a 6-credit internship. This is about 18 hours per week for a 15-week internship, or 34 hours per week for an 8-week summer internship. Actual hours per week will depend on duration of internship and agreement with internship supervisor.
Student Interns need to complete a minimum of 135 hours during a 3-credit internship. This is about 9 hours per week for a 15-week internship, or 17 hours per week for an 8-week summer internship. Actual hours per week will depend on duration of internship and agreement with internship supervisor.
Minimal (less than 5%) of overall internship responsibilities can be related to sales, cold-calling, or generating business for the internship organization. Only minimal routine clerical work (20% max) is permitted.
Student Interns must complete a project under the supervision of their internship supervisor and prepare a final report, presentation, or equivalent artifact documenting this internship project. You will discuss this in your Self Evaluation.
Internships must be structured experiences allowing students to engage in substantive projects that require skills such as research, analysis, summarizing data, writing, presenting information visually and orally, planning, organizing, implementing programs and services, problem solving, thinking critically, influencing and persuading, and decision making.
Student interns must have regular access to an internship supervisor who can give them feedback, provide onboarding training, dedicate time and resources to mentoring, and evaluate the intern at the end of the internship experience.
Student interns must be provided with an appropriate work space and/or resources required to complete assignments.
The internship host organization must be a legally established/incorporated and insured business or non-profit (not an uninsured sole proprietorship).
We cannot approve the following types of experiences as internships for credit:
We cannot approve internship credit for a job you currently hold. However, there may be opportunities to work within your current organization as long as the experience you undertake will be a new one for you. If you are interested in this option, please review the Work Variance section on the Types of Internships page, and contact the Tech Leadership Advisor to discuss further.
We cannot approve internship experiences that involve door-to-door solicitation/sales, or that require students to market goods/services/brands to university students on campus.
We cannot approve internships with individual consultants or contractors. The internship needs to be with an organization, not an individual.
Students may not intern for themselves, a family member or relative, a friend, a significant other, a current ASU student, or any person that they have a relationship with that may be deemed as a conflict of interest (such as a coach, future in-law, or any person who reports directly or indirectly to any of the above).
We cannot approve internships involving the sale or distribution of medical marijuana.
Interns are prohibited from working or meeting in an employer’s private residence.
Retroactive credit will not be issued for internships completed in previous terms.
The Tech Leadership Internship Program encourages students to seek paid internships, especially if the internship is with a for-profit or private company. The rate of pay for a paid internship must be at least federal, state, or local minimum wage. Both paid and unpaid internships will earn credit.