MSCM Practicums are supervised fieldwork completed on-campus for one of the student media outlets or a university department. The goal of all Mass Communication practicums is to prepare our students and give them the practical experience to develop both their skill set and professional portfolio. Every practicum has an on-site supervisor and an academic supervisor.
Practicum students provide campus departments or organizations with assistance in Mass Communication-related tasks. Due to high demand, supervisors will be limited to two practicum students per semester. Also, generally, there are more requests than available students, so not all practicum requests will be fulfilled.
All Mass Communication practicum positions must be on-campus (off-campus outreach is usually fine just as the sponsoring organization/office is housed here on campus).
If you think a practicum student would be a good fit for your department, please contact Christina Smith, the practicum academic supervisor.
Please remember:
Not all practicum requests will be fulfilled.
Your request must be for a relevant project that provides the student with practical experience and portfolio materials. There are generally a more limited number of students available for video projects.
Practicum student selection must be completed before the end of the semester drop/add period, which is the first week of classes each semester.
Students will contact practicum supervisors and set up interviews during the first four days of the semester. If you do not have time to interview and select a practicum student during that week, please do not make a request.
Practicum students need to work approximately 45 hours for you during the semester.
However, practicum students are not student workers or interns, so their time commitment cannot be excessive (no more than 60 hours over the semester).
All communication work product created by practicum students and intended for circulation to the campus or the community needs to be reviewed by the Office of University Communications prior to distribution. On-site supervisors are responsible for adhering to university branding standards, although practicum students are trained to be mindful of University Communications’ guidelines.
If you have any further questions, please contact Christina Smith, the practicum academic supervisor.