George Mason University
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Sociology 416 / 516: Internship in Sociology
Fall 2004
Instructor: Patricia A. Masters, Ph.D.
Office Hours: By appointment
Office Address: 326B Robinson Hall (in the Sociology and Anthropology Department)
Home Office Phone: 703/471-9830 (Note: This number is for my office at home where you can contact me directly or leave a message. Please do not call after 9:30 p.m.)
E-mail: pmasters@gmu.edu or pattymasters@earthlink.net
Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~pmasters
An internship is intended to provide students with hands-on experience in Sociology and deepen Sociological knowledge. Ideally, internships provide a linkage between theories and practice. The organization that sponsors internships can benefit from students’ training, and, in some cases, students can use their internship contacts and work experiences in finding satisfying jobs related to their academic interests. To be eligible for an internship, you must have a G.P.A. of 2.75 and you must have completed 21 hours of Sociology courses, including SOCI 313 (this may be waived in certain cases).
Finding an Internship
The GMU Career Services Office has information on organizations that sponsor internships; it includes many U.S. Government departments and agencies, such as the Peace Corps and the Justice Department ; state government agencies, such as the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, and the Northern Virginia Community Mental Health Office; advocacy organizations such as Children First and the Council for a Livable World; professional organizations, such as the American Sociological Association; and many others, such as WETA-TV, the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. To get a full listing of sponsoring organizations, you should visit Career Services. In addition, you will ind announcements of internship opportunities posted in the Sociology and Anthropology Department. You may also arrange an internship on your own, but this internship as with the others must be approved by the Department.Course Requirements
- 120 hours of fieldwork (on-site experience) in an approved internship for 3 hours of course credit.
- A term paper that focuses on a sociological issue or problem that is related to your fieldwork. A journal, with 5 entries, that reflect on your experience in the work environment and how that experience has affected your thinking on sociological issues.
- An evaluation from your work supervisor
A 10-12 page term paper is a major component of your course grade. The paper should be analytic and reflective, not merely descriptive. The topic should be related to an area within sociology. For example, last semester, at student worked at an internship in the State of Virginia Voter Registration office; the topic she chose for her term paper was how Virginia residents can get their right to vote reinstated after they have been convicted of a felony. She was able to gather many statistics on the numbers of Virginians who are minorities who are denied the right to vote and she was able to integrate a discussion of the impact of disenfranchisement on minorities in the State. Another student worked with in a teen shelter and through his internship he was able to look at the family backgrounds of the troubled teenagers as he worked with them as a mentor. These are only a couple of examples of how your internship experience relates to the courses you take in Sociology. Your topic must be approved, and therefore you will need to write a proposal outlining the significance of the problem, the methods you will use to investigate your question, and a bibliography listing several scholarly articles from journals or equivalent readings due by week 4. Though your may find readings on the web, they are supplementary to, not substitutes for, scholarly sources.
The Journal
The journal gives you an opportunity to describe how your field experience has affected your thinking about the social issue that is the focus of your internship. The length should be about 2 pages per entry, and you should turn in the entries on the following schedule: Weeks 3, 6, 9, and 12 of your internship; the final entry should be included with your term paper.
Scheduled Meetings
We will have two meetings of all internship students during the semester, to be scheduled. In addition, you should arrange to meet with me early in the term to discuss your paper topic, and bring copies of your journal to me so that we can discuss your progress and concerns. I will post office hours on my office door during week 1.
Grading Criteria and Grade Scale
40 points for your research paper
25 points for your journal
35 points for your supervisor’s evaluation of your performance
100-95 points = A
91-94 points = A-
88-90 points = B+
84-87 points = B
81-84 points = B-
77-80 points = C+
72-76 points = C
69-70 points = C-
67-69 points = D
66 or fewer points = F