Exercise Science
Internship Handbook

• HP 487 requires 120 hours of internship. Observation hours can be used toward the 120 required. 

• The difference between INTERNSHIP and OBSERVATION HOURS

  • • Internship hours involve hands-on experiences with and without supervision which progress in responsibilities and autonomy with time. 

    • Observation hours involve only shadowing and observing a trained, certified, or licensed individual. You as a student are not legally allowed to work with clients, as you are not licensed. You can help with non-client related duties like organization and cleaning but for the most part, you observe. (AT, OT, PT...)

• If you register for credits in a semester and do not complete the hours, you will request an "In Progress" IP grade. You have the following semester to complete these hours or the IP will turn into and F. 

Internship Hours

• • • Your supervisor will receive an email at the beginning of the semester providing them a connection to the HP 487 instructor so they can reach out if there are any issues or they have any questions. 

    • They will receive an intern evaluation online survey at the end of the semester, regardless of when you finish your hours. 

    • Your internship supervisor can choose to terminate your internship if you do not meet the standard of work by the organization. Make sure to be professional and take your internship as seriously as any other job. 

Observation Hours

• • • The HP 487 instructor will not be in contact with your supervisor as most observation hours are completed with many changing supervisors. 

    • Make sure you keep good records of your hours for your PT/OT/AT applications. You will need their identification numbers to report in PTCAS, ATCAS, OTCAS when you are entering your observation hours. 

1. Use the HP Events, Internships, & News site for consistently updated posts. 

2. Make sure to check out the "Past Internship and Observation Site" post on the HP Events, Internships, & News. 

3. Look at the list of "Current Contracts for Internship Sites" in section IV. 

4. Search online for facilities that you are interested in and call or stop by to ask them about their internship or observation opportunities. 

5. Meet with Albers to refine your ideas. Make an appointment through MavConnect. 

You must be registered for HP 487 while completing the hours you want to count your internship. You can not bring in hours from a different time point and use them toward your now registered credits. Starting an internship a few weeks before the semester begins is fine if the large majority of your hours will be completed in the registered semester. 

Financial Aid considers this academic fraud, as you are receiving credit (and potentially financial aid) for work that you are not actually doing. 

You can keep track of your hours any way you like. This is in case the internship site has a specific way in mind. You will need to submit an hours log in D2L at the end of the semester but it can be in any format. Making an hours log in Excel is recommended. An example hours log is located on the HP 487 D2L site. 

***Your internship supervisor must sign off on your hours at the end of every month. 

The Supervisor Approval Form gives you the opportunity to meet with your future internship supervisor and discuss what you both want out of the internship experience. 

• Only for internship hours. not needed for observation hours. 

• Complete the form (either as a pdf or print and write).

• Discuss it with your internship supervisor and make revisions if needed.

• In your application, you will be asked to upload this document. 

• Name the file "Last Name Approval Form". 

• Only needed for internship hours. 

• The University needs a completed, signed, and valid internship contract with every site where our students are completing internship hours. 

• The contract does not need to be complete for you to submit your application, it just needs to be "in progress". This means our contract office is in the process of drafting and sending the contract to your site. 

• Check to see if your internship site has a contract with the University using the list below. 

• If you are only completing observation hours at this site, you do not need an internship contract as you are not completing any hands-on experiences. This includes observation hours for PT/OT/AT grad school applications. 

• You do not need a contract if the site is on our campus or one of the MSU Mankato departments. 

We have 2 versions of the contract. This one is for large organizations like Mayo, YMCA, and multi-site practitioners. The other version of the contract is for small, privately owned organizations (like privately owned fitness facilities). It speaks to different insurance needs and liability limits. 

Complete the Request for Internship Site Contract Form to being the contract process. 

The student liability will be attached to the course enrollment of HP 487. When you enroll, an $8 fee will be added to your student account for the student liability insurance. The fee will show has "LIAB fee". This is mandatory and protects you as a student giving advice under the scope of your internship. 

Internship hours involve hands-on experiences with and without supervision which progress in responsibilities and autonomy with time. 

Observation hours involve only shadowing and observing a trained or licensed individual. You as a student are not legally allowed to work with clients, as you are not licensed. You can help with non-client-related duties like organization and cleaning but for the most part, you observe. 

The online application cannot be saved and completed later. Have these materials ready when you apply. 

In the application for internship hours, you will need:

• The site information and address

• Supervisor information and contact

• Proof of HIPAA/FERPA named "Last Name Training".

• Completed Supervisor Approval Form signed by your supervisor named "Last Name Approval Form".

When applying for observation hours, you will need:

• The site information and address

• Estimated start date, hours per week, number of weeks, end date

• If the site requires CPR, background check, or vaccination records. 

• 3 specific and measurable goals or skills you want to observe. 

• Proof of HIPAA/FERPA named "Last Name Training". 

Use a picture to pdf mobile app or the printers in the Library to scan documents and save as pdfs for submission.