Develop Career Readiness While Making Meaningful Contributions to Life in the Community and Beyond
Applied Humanities students prepare for their future by gaining insight into their important career-advancing and transferable skills, contributing to partner organizations in meaningful and substantive ways, developing entrepreneurial and collaboration skills, and exploring and enhancing life in the community and beyond. The required internship and career readiness experiences bolster student confidence and understanding of the job market and careers that await upon graduating from the university.
For Students: Planning Your Internship and Career Readiness Experiences
Details: In addition to completing challenging and future-oriented humanities and emphasis-area coursework, where you gain innovative skills that allow you to convert understanding into action, you'll complete three semesters of career readiness coursework.
The first course is PAH 383 (Pre-Internship: Building Career Readiness). Participation in the course helps you identify transferable skills, creates opportunities for career discovery, and provides guidance on developing or enhancing tools needed for careers, such as resumes, cover letters, and professional pitches. The suggested timing for this course is during your sophomore year.
The second course in the sequence is PAH 493 (Internship), and is designed to maximize specific learning during the 120 contact hours required to earn three units. Students gain diverse skillsets while completing internships in varied industries and with public and private organizations, located locally and globally. You may also use the internship to explore your own entrepreneurial interests.
The third course is PAH 498 (Senior Capstone). This culminating course in the sequence helps you synthesize the career readiness learning and experiences you have accumulated while working on your Applied Humanities degree. The course emphasizes broadly comprehensive knowledge about life skills and personal self-knowledge practices, and is intended to bolster your confidence for, and understanding of, possible life paths that await you upon graduating from the University.
Finding an Internship: Much like when you launch your career, it is your responsibility to search for and secure your internship. The task of searching for an internship may feel overwhelming—this is common. Every Applied Humanities student is supported by the Internship Team—Stephanie Springer and Brittney Crawford—during the internship search (which begins during PAH 383) and throughout the internship itself.
Once you've secured an internship, you'll collaborate with the Internship Team and your mentor or supervisor at your internship organization to formalize the experience with the UA by submitting an Internship Work Plan. As a note, for academic credit to be awarded, the University requires (1) you to be enrolled in PAH 493 during the same term that you're completing your internship contact hours, and (2) you to participate in the PAH 493 class activities.
Frequently Asked Questions & Answers:
- What kinds of internships have other Applied Humanities students completed?
- Internship opportunities abound for students in the Applied Humanities. We've had students intern with a southern Arizona social media strategy consulting group, a Phoenix small business, nonprofits based out of Tucson, Phoenix, and Washington DC, a California real estate agency, an international beauty supplier, an Atlanta modeling and artist representation agency, a fashion and beauty TikTok influencer, a Tucson physical therapy provider, a COVID contact tracing team, a rural community food bank, a Tucson architecture firm, a Sacramento design and construction company, the UA Design Lab, and with branches of national companies including Honda and Penske. We’ve also had students launch their own creative-focused small business. Read advice from Applied Humanities who have already completed their internships by checking out the Internship Spotlights below.
- What should I do when I have additional questions?
- Learn more about internship policies, frequently asked questions, and support provided to the student by reviewing the Department's Internship Manual, and by reaching out to Stephanie Springer and Brittney Crawford.
For Partner Organizations: Hosting an Intern
Supporting Student Learning: The internship experience is a carefully monitored learning experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what they are learning, while also completing work that is meaningful and substantive for the partner organization. Each internship experience is individually designed, and planned for with insight from the student intern, site supervisor, and Internship Team.
Partner Organization Benefit: When hosting an intern, partner organizations benefit from the student intern’s fresh perspective and enthusiasm for learning. Often, due to the student’s meaningful contributions, there is increased productivity and added capacity to advance special projects and initiatives. An additional benefit is that the partnership creates a pipeline of future employees.
Learn More: Read more about internship policies, frequently asked questions, and expectations of partner agencies by reviewing the Department's Internship Manual.
Share Your Opportunities: Partner organizations are invited to advertise internship and/or career opportunities to students through targeted advertisements to Applied Humanities students, and through Handshake, the free online career platform which the University uses for internship and job announcements.
