Internships and Applied Experience (3 credits: P/F or Regular Credit) includes internships, service learning,undergraduate research, student teacher praxis, and AMST courses designed as applied research. Students in dual programs may fulfill this requirement by taking an approved applied experience course in the second department.
Some courses (such as AMST 422: Preserving Places, Making Spaces in Baltimore) fulfill the applied experience credit. Or you can do an internship advised by any fulltime professor in the department. Students are responsible for securing their internship in consultation with their advisor. All internships (AMST 498: section numbers vary according to advisor) have three basic requirements:
- 120 hours at the internship
- Regular (usually weekly) journal entries reflecting on the experience (including a tally of hours)
- Final project reflecting on the internship experience and relating it to issues in American studies (usually a paper but can be an innovative project)
Please talk to your advisor about completing an internship while at UMBC. The university also offers information on internships on the Jobs & Internships page and at the Shriver Center.
NOTE: All internships are taken with the Pass/Fail grading option, and therefore cannot be used toward the core or the emphasis area. They are variable credit and students must enter the 3 credits upon registration.
All American Studies majors are required to complete 3 credits in an applied experience.
Internships undertaken by previous American Students include:
- WJZ Television
- Lighthouse Youth Services Center
- Maryland Center for History and Culture
- Women: A Journal of Liberation
- Pikesville Chamber of Commerce
- Maryland Hall of Records
- Baltimore Museum of Industry
- Relay Children’s Center
- Montgomery County Volunteer Bureau
- Legal Aid
- American Heart Association
- Kennedy Institute
- U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service
- The Family Tree
- Howard County Department of Parks and Recreation
- Governor’s Summer Internship Program
- Baltimore Clayworks
- Baltimore City (Children in the Arts)
- Baltimore Magazine
- Historic St. Mary’s City
- American Friends Service Committee
- Baltimore Mayor’s Office (TV 21)
- Easter Seals
- Baltimore City, Mayor’s Office
- Catonsville Chamber of Commerce
- Citizens Against Spousal Abuse of Howard County
- CHAP, Baltimore City
- Choice America
- WHFS (D.C. radio station)
- Chesapeake Life (magazine)
- Asian Arts Initiative in New York City
- Porter Novelli
- Public Relations at Devious Planet
- Baltimore Blast
- WNST 1570 AM, Baltimore’s and Towson’s sports talk radio
- WBALT TV
- UMBC’s Imaging Research Center (IMC)
- Retirement Living TV at UMBC’s New Media Studio
- UMBC Writing Center
- WPOC 93.1, Clear Channel Baltimore
- LaxTrack
- Greenbelt Museum
- Monotype, LLC., a textbook publishing firm located in Hampden, Baltimore
- Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks
- Stroud and Associates, LLC, a communications firm in Washington, DC
- Maryland Student PIRG (Public Interest Research Group)
- Maryland Museum of Military History