Youth internship

An internship is a temporary, hands-on learning opportunity that provides meaningful career-related experience by extending education beyond the classroom. Internships may be paid or unpaid, for credit or not for credit, and for career-related experience at Iowa State or at a non-university employer.

An internship is not:

  • A job or volunteer work that provides little or no opportunity for a student to learn about their career of interest
  • A job or volunteer work that is unrelated to the student's academic discipline
  • A job or volunteer work with little or no training, guidance, and supervision

Job shadow

A job shadow experience is most often requested by middle school and high school students to learn about an occupational area of interest. The experience may help a student make a connection between their classroom learning and applying those skills in the workplace. A job shadow is a temporary (one day or less), unpaid visit during which a student observes and/or performs tasks in the work environment under supervision of faculty or professional and scientific (P&S) staff.

The department/unit offering an internship is responsible for ensuring the internship is meaningful and will enhance the student's educational experience and career development.

Youth internships and job shadows require on-site supervision by Iowa State faculty or P&S staff and are subject to the Children in the Workplace policy if more than incidental or intermittent and not part of a registered youth activity, program, or camp.

Supervisors:

  • Register the internship/job shadow opportunity:
    • Log in to Cy Check
    • Select Internship/Job Shadow Registration
    • Complete and submit the form
  • For a youth internship, you must also complete and submit to the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost the Internship Program Requestion/Approval Form. If the internship is not already an approved program, submit at least four weeks before the internship start date.
  • Risk management staff with work with supervisors and those who will interact with the youth intern/job shadow participant to complete required background checks and Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training.
  • A participation agreement will be emailed to the supervisor once the registration request has been approved. It is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure the agreement has been completed by both the youth participant and the participant's parent/guardian and to upload it to Cy Check.