FIELDWORK SEMINAR FACT SHEET

Every student who decides to major or minor in Urban Studies is required to do an internship for credit. They are expected to spend between 15-20 hours per week at the internship site. In addition, students sign up for a double credit weekly seminar called "Fieldwork." The seminar is designed to help structure the internship learning experience. Currently, Urban Studies is the only undergraduate major at Penn which requires an internship.

This fact sheet is intended to help you determine your expectations for the kind of work interns will do.

Find the fieldwork fact sheet here.

What is the purpose of the Fieldwork internship?

The internship gives students an opportunity to see the connections between theory (what they have been learning in their classes) and practice by working closely with a community group, public agency, non-profit or private organization. The experience grounds students' academic learning and helps them clarify their interests and career directions. In our surveys of Urban Studies graduates, we ask them to list courses which have proven important to them in their current careers. They almost always cite the fieldwork internship as one of the most important parts of their undergraduate experience.

How do students choose sites?

Students choose a fieldwork site either because they are considering a career in the field or because they are interested in the substance of what the organization does and want to clarify their interests, professional goals, or possible area of graduate study. After choosing an agency, students submit a placement form to the Urban Studies office which provides us with the supervisor's contact information.

What kinds of assignments do students do for the fieldwork class?

We expect students to be self-conscious about what they are learning through their internship and to be able to articulate and demonstrate their learning. They develop a learning plan with three kinds of goals: knowledge, skills, and normative, which they revise half way through the internship. Students choose the two goals that best demonstrate what they learned in the internship to present in the final "portfolio." The portfolio also includes an ethnography, history, and management analysis of the organization as well as a bibliography and academic essay. Most of the interns keep a journal, which they use to illustrate arguments in their portfolios
Each student makes a presentation on one of their learning plan goals to the whole class at the end of the semester.

What kinds of activities do we envision interns doing in the sites?

Students should become involved in the substance of the organization's work. Successful models include assisting a particular staff member in all aspects of his/her work or working on a project that crosses departments and roles within the organization. Interns can provide needed help to assist with ongoing or new
projects related to the organization's mission. From time to time, the intern may want to interview various staff members or even individuals from outside of the organization in order to do one of the seminar assignments.

We understand that sometimes you will expect interns to do routine work, as everyone in a workplace does, but such work should not be the primary focus of an intern's responsibilities.

How are students' grades determined and what is the supervisor's role?

In reviewing students' written assignments, we are looking for students to show they understand the organization's mission, how it operates, and its role within a larger context. In the final portfolios, we like to see: 1) demonstration of progress or development over time, 2) ability to articulate and attain specific goals, 3) demonstration of the link between learning in the internship experience and academic theory or analysis, and 4) demonstration of an understanding of the organization, its workings and historical and institutional context.

The internship supervisor contributes to assessing a student in two ways. The first is by your responses to questions on the supervisor evaluation form about the students' work and your satisfaction . The other way in which the supervisor plays a role in the student's grade is in creating good learning opportunities for students. The richness of the internship experience is reflected in the quality of the essays students hand in.

We would be happy to talk with you further if you have any questions or would like consultation on the internship. You can call Elaine Simon at the Urban Studies offices, 898-6948.