Students who have officially declared the BBA in Management: Entrepreneurial Management Track, BA Enterprise Leadership, Entrepreneurial Management Certificate, or Technological Entrepreneurship Certificate are eligible to earn academic credit for their professional internship. This internship must be professional experience beyond daily office tasks. Class assignments typically include a variety of reflections, evaluations, papers, and a presentation.

Before seeking approval for academic credit, students are to:
 

  • Obtain an internship that provides the student with a professional work experience, preferably outside of the university, which relates to entrepreneurial management; internship description and duties might include: project management/team, business strategy, market research/analysis, operations management, market penetration/sales, and financial evaluation/forecasting.
  • Students should register for the class the semester they work. Example: For a professional internship from May to August, a student should register for class the summer semester.
  • Internship must provide student with an immersion experience in an entrepreneurial and/or business management environment and be at least 80% professional work (not general office support). NOTE: Answering phones, staffing a check-in desk, and daily office tasks do not count as professional experience for this class.
  • Internship requires continuous supervision by a professional in the field (not a student).
  • Internship length must be at least eight weeks in the summer and 10 weeks during the fall/spring semesters.
  • Workload requirements are as follows:
    • Three Credit Hours – minimum of 225 hours worked
    • Two Credit Hours – minimum of 150 hours worked
    • One Credit Hour – minimum of 75 hours worked
  • Student must be a sophomore or above (i.e. have completed at least 30 semester hours of college- level coursework) to enroll in the Academic Internship course.
  • The course may be repeated. If with the same company, the student must be engaged in activities requiring a higher level accountability and responsibility. A maximum of three semester hours may be earned.

To request approval for an Academic Internship through the Entrepreneurship program, please follow these steps:

1. Secure a professional internship.
2. Log into your Handshake account to seek approval for academic credit for the internship.
3. Go to “Career Center” at the top and then click on “Experiences”.
4. Click on “Request an Experience”.
5. Choose “Entrepreneurship – Academic Internship – ENTR:4900 from the “Experience Type” list.
6. Please complete the online form with all of the required information about your internship.
7. Once it is reviewed by an Iowa JPEC faculty member, you will receive an email if approved and the required special code to register for the academic internship course.