Beyond the Classroom

This course will fulfill an elective credit(s) for all psychology and neuroscience majors. 

Students wishing to participate in an internship should register for one to three credits of PSYC 379 (Internship in Psychology). 50 hours of internship experience is required for each credit earned. The hours must be completed during the semester. The course is offered fall, spring, J-Term and summer.

Internships may be paid or unpaid and will provide you with significant opportunity to gain experience under the supervision of a qualified professional.

Requirements for internship participation:

• Must be a psychology or neuroscience major.
• Must have completed have completed 60 semester credit hours (minimum of 20 in psychology or neuroscience).
• Must have earned overall GPA of at least 2.5 and obtain the consent of the department supervisor.
• Must complete an Internship Placement Agreement form.

Previous internship placements have included:

• ACR Homes
• Ascension Place (Minneapolis)
• Beyond Behavior
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Dakota County Corrections
• Emily Program (St. Paul)
• Health Partners Human Resources
• LearningRx Brain Training (Hudson, Wis.)
• Life Striders Therapeutic Riding (Waukesha, Wis.)
• Minnesota Teen Challenge (Minneapolis)
• Northwest Passage
• Positive Alternatives (Various Locations)
• Regions Hospital (St. Paul)
• St. Croix Correctional Facility
• St. Croix Valley Restorative Justice
• St. Croix Valley SART (River Falls)
• Stillwater Prison
• Tubman Family Crisis and Support Services (Minneapolis)
• Turningpoint Shelter
• Valley Friendship Club
• Various Child Care Centers
• Various School Districts
• Walk On Therapeutic Riding (River Falls)
• Wisconsin Early Autism Project (Various Locations)
   

More Internship Opportunities

• Wisconnect: Wisconsin Internships
• Minnesota Council of Nonprofits

UW-River Falls Psychological Sciences Department Internship Guidelines

Course Description: PSYC 379 (1-3 cr.) Internship in Psychology

This course is used for students majoring or minoring in both psychology and neuroscience.

This internship program supervises students as they complete work in human services or health agencies, businesses, industries or organizations. The goal of the program is to provide students with opportunities to apply their knowledge and to learn more about work in the field of psychology or neuroscience. The intern's duties and responsibilities will be tailored to the needs of the sponsoring organization and the background of the student. The internship site must be approved by the Psychological Sciences Department in advance of the work experience.

Prerequisites: Students must have completed 60 semester credit hours (at least 20 credits in psychology or neuroscience) with a 2.5 overall GPA and obtain the consent of the department supervisor. An Internship Placement Agreement form must be completed by the student, the internship supervisor and by the agency.

Fifty hours of internship experience is required for each credit earned. A three-credit experience requires 150 hours of participation. Course grades will be determined by the department supervisor. The grade will reflect the quality of the internship performance as well as the quality of the written report submitted by the student.

Required Written Report: The written report consists of two parts: a weekly report and a final summary analysis.

The student must send a weekly emailed report to the department supervisor outlining their activities and total hours worked that week. The final summary analysis is based on the student's overall experiences and is an in-depth appraisal of the internship experience. The student should try to answer the following questions: What was the experience like for you? What major things have you learned? How did your experience connect (or not) to your academic experiences as a psychology major?

Most people who have earned a bachelor's degree in psychology work in the human services, business or related fields. For additional examples of the kinds of careers pursued by psychology majors, please visit UWRF Career Services or contact melanie.ayres@uwrf.edu. 

Many students who major in psychology pursue specialized training at the graduate level in such programs as counseling, school psychology or industrial-organizational psychology. Most graduate programs require applicants to submit their undergraduate transcripts, GRE scores and letters of recommendation. If you intend to request letters in support of your application, please download and complete our Letter of Recommendation Form. We also encourage you to contact our department chair, melanie.ayres@uwrf.edu with any questions regarding graduate school.

As a student researcher, there are certain policies and procedures that you must follow. There are also several forms that you must use, which can be downloaded from this site. The following guidelines have been developed to assist you in conducting your study proficiently. 

Student researchers may choose to offer research participants with extra credit for courses to incentivize participating in research studies. In order to offer extra credit, students must track participants.  

Prior to Collecting Data

Face-to-Face and Online Studies First Steps

Step1: Obtain an IRB approval number from your instructor/research supervisor and complete your CITI Training for social and behavioral science researchers.

Step 2: Contact the Psychological Sciences Department and get a departmental study number. 

Step 3: Complete a Study Information Form.  When you fill out the form you'll need to have the following information: 

• IRB approval number and departmental study number,
• a brief description of your study,
• a description that will be shown to participants,
• number of desired participants,
• a list of courses and instructors that have agreed to offer extra credit,
• presentation opportunity (if known) and
• a link to participate in the study (if available). This will be a Qualtrics link for online studies or a sign-up link for face-to-face participation.

In addition to the steps above, student researchers conducting face-to-face studies will need to reserve a room to conduct their research and create a sign up link.

Reserve a room for your study:

• Determine the specific dates and times that you will be collecting data and how many participants you want to accommodate at each session.
• Check room availability with the Psychological Sciences Department and reserve a room for these dates and times. Please do not attempt to reserve a room without consulting the main office.
   

Create a sign-up link for participants:

• You can use any free online sign-up software. The department recommends using signup.com.
• Make sure to collect the participants' names, emails and extra credit course information (DEPT XXX-XX Course Name, Instructor).
• Please note that a list of participants needs to be submitted at the end of your study. It is recommended that you enter the names participants in a spreadsheet after each session.

Collecting Data

Student researchers will be responsible for collecting and organizing data. Student researchers work with their research supervisor to make sure that their data collection methods are appropriate for their research needs. All participants must consent to participating in the research study.

If you are conducting a face-to-face session you may need to complete the Consent Form Cover Sheet and the Consent Reporting Form.

• Consent Form Cover Sheet: Make certain that the information on this cover sheet corresponds to the information appearing on your Study Information Form. The study name, number, course name, etc., should be the same. List on this sheet any potential risks that are involved with this study and make participants aware of participation guidelines.
• Consent Reporting Form: Make as many copies as needed, then staple these copies to the back of the Consent Form Cover Sheet.

Notably, in some studies, individual consent forms are used instead of the Consent Reporting Form. For purposes of awarding extra credit, student researchers must still keep track of participants. Please discuss the method that you will use to document participation in your study, with your research supervisor.

Remember to collect participation information and enter it into a spreadsheet after each session.

After Collecting Data: Once data collection is completed, student researchers should notify the Psychological Sciences Department that the study is complete and provide the total number of participants. Submit the Student Research Completion Form once you are ready to start analyzing your data. If participants are able to receive extra credit for participating in your study continue with the steps below. 

Extra Credit: After your study is complete, compile a list of all participants in your study using your sign-up information from your sessions in a spreadsheet. Ideally, you have been entering the participants in a spreadsheet after each session. You'll need to include the following fields in your spreadsheet:

• Column 1: Participant Last Name
• Column 2: Participant First Name
• Column 3: Participant Email (freddy.falcon@my.uwrf.edu)
• Column 4: Course Information for Extra Credit (DEPT XXX-XX Course Name, Instructor)
• Column 5: Your Study Name

Once you have completed the participant spreadsheet email the document as an attachment to the Psychological Sciences Department.

In addition to the steps above, you'll need to create a a survey in Qualtrics. If you haven't already done so, you'll need to create a Qualtrics account. Learn how to create a Qualtrics account. Once you've created your survey, send your survey link to the Psychological Sciences Department so that they can create a sign-up sheet for your online participants. The Psychological Sciences Department will create a sign-up sheet in Qualtrics for participants and share the survey with you.

Online studies may include the consent form on the first page of the survey. Work with your research supervisor to create the consent form and integrate it into your Qualtrics survey.

Consent Form Cover Sheet Sample

• Consent Form Cover Sheet: Make certain that the information on this cover sheet corresponds to the information appearing on your Study Information Form. The study name, number, course name, etc., should be the same. List on this sheet any potential risks that are involved with this study and make participants aware of participation guidelines.
   

Notably, in some studies, individual consent forms are used instead of the Consent Reporting Form. For purposes of awarding extra credit, student researchers must still keep track of participants. Please discuss the method that you will use to document participation in your study, with your research supervisor.

Collecting Data: Student researchers will be responsible for collecting and organizing data. Student researchers work with their research supervisor to make sure that their data collection methods are appropriate for their research needs.

After Collecting Data: Once data collection is completed, student researchers should notify the Psychological Sciences Department that the study is complete and provide the total number of participants. If participants are able to receive extra credit for participating in your study continue with the steps below. 

Extra Credit: Download the participant information from the sign-up survey if it was shared with you from the Psychological Sciences Department. To download your sign-up information please refer to this document. Once you've downloaded your participant information from Qualtrics remove the extra fields and leave only the fields listed below. Advanced Methods students do not need to download the sign-up sheet.

Required Fields in bold:

• Column 1: Participant Last Name
• Column 2: Participant First Name
• Column 3: Participant Email (freddy.falcon@my.uwrf.edu)
• Column 4: Course Information for Extra Credit (DEPT XXX-XX Course Name, Instructor)
• Column 5: Your Study Name
   

If you are having difficulties please contact the Psychological Sciences Department in 151 Centennial Science Hall. Once you have completed the participant spreadsheet email the document as an attachment to the Psychological Sciences Department.