Political Science Internships
Earn course credit with your internship.
Get valuable, hands-on work experience upon graduation through an internship and earn POS 484: Political Science Internship course credit. Are you meant to work in politics or for a political organization? Is a governmental job for you, or maybe a think tank? By completing an internship you should be able to answer these questions more definitively.
Students are encouraged to seek out and research different internship opportunities on their own. All paperwork and final approval must go through Dr. Gina Woodall at gina.woodall@asu.edu before the student begins the internship.
Eligibility requirements
- Overall GPA of at least 2.5.
- Completed at least 50 semester hours of credit.
- Students are expected to have at least 12 hours of coursework completed at ASU.
- 3.0 in all Political Science courses taken.
- Coursework should include POS 110 or 310: Politics and Government or the equivalent, and other courses appropriate to the intern placement.
Important reminders
- Internship credit must be earned during the semester in which a student completes the internship (i.e., retroactive credit is not granted).
- Honors contracts are not available with POS 484.
- Final acceptance of internship applications and agreements are determined and approved by Dr. Woodall.
Deadlines
October 1 (Fall deadline) March 1 (Spring deadline) July 10 (Summer deadline)
These deadlines are the absolute latest a student may register for POS 484 credit.
How to apply for POS 484 credit
Note: Only follow these steps if you have an internship lined up. If you do not have an internship, reach out to our academic advising team and Dr. Woodall for support.
- Send your transcripts to Dr. Woodall at gina.woodall@asu.edu
- Login to your ASU Handshake account with your ASURITE ID and password below.
- Click on “Career Center" > “Experiences" > “Request an Experience”
- Select the following “Experience Type” from the dropdown list: Political Science Internship POS 484
- Fill out the form to the best of your ability and submit it. Once submitted, it will be routed to Dr. Woodall who will review your request. If approved, your form will be routed via email to the Supervisor that you listed. If denied, Dr. Woodall will contact you with more information.
- Your Supervisor will submit an electronic approval that is routed to Dr. Woodall. If denied by your Supervisor, you will be contacted by Dr. Woodall.
- Once approved by all parties, Dr. Woodall will be in touch regarding next steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
First, students should contact Dr. Woodall either via email at gina.woodall@asu.edu or during her office hours to see if their internship qualifies them for POS 484 credit. Besides the internship itself, students are *required* to complete academic requirements on-line, in the same semester that they are completing the internship. All paperwork and final approval must go through Dr. Woodall before the student begins the internship.
It is not necessary to be a political science major to do an internship for political science credit. It is necessary, however, that a student has completed some political science course work before beginning an internship for political science credit.
Yes. If you are not enrolled in the Arizona Legislative Internship program, Capitol Scholars or the McCain Institute, you are limited to earning 6 POS 484 credits per internship experience. You may complete more than one internship during your time at ASU, however, and may earn additional credits (beyond the 6) that don’t go towards your major requirements, but do go towards your total upper division elective credits.
To be accepted for a political science internship, a student must have an overall GPA of at least 2.5, and must have completed at least 50 semester hours of credit. Generally, students are expected to have at least 12 hours of coursework completed at ASU and a 3.0 in all Political Science courses taken. Coursework should include POS 110 or 310: Politics and Government or the equivalent, and other courses appropriate to the intern placement.
No. The internship and objectives must be substantively different than the previous internship in order to earn additional credit. All must be approved by Dr. Woodall.
Yes. The absolute latest deadline for Spring is March 1st. Fall's deadline is October 1. Summer’s deadline is July 10th.
No. You must be registered for POS 484 in the same semester that you complete your internship work.
No. Honors contracts are not available for POS 484 at this time.
No. Both academic advisors and Dr. Woodall are happy to talk with our about different opportunities, as well as show students where opportunities are listed on social media and via email. However, the onus of obtaining an internship (researching, applying, and final acceptance) rests solely with the student. In short, we explain the process, but the student puts in the work and earns the credit.
The first step, before you go through the application process, is to (1) be sure you are eligible for credit and (2) the internship organization/agency is approved by Dr. Woodall (and thus, an internship agreement form is completed). After steps 1 and 2 are complete, then apply online by going to http://asu.joinhandshake.com/experiences and searching “Political Science Internship POS 484.”
Most internships are unpaid. Rather than pay, students earn academic credit at their institutions. Some internships are paid AND the student is able to earn academic credit. These internships are usually much more competitive.
You have to have earned 50 college credits, with at least 12 credits being here at ASU. For the typical college student, this puts the class status at “mid-sophomore” year or so.
No, your current job is not eligible to be considered for POS 484 credit. However, it can be demonstrated that you will be working on special projects OUTSIDE of your “normal” job duties, and it is related to political science broadly, then we can discuss the possibility.
Yes. This is a letter-graded class like all your other classes. Academic work is completed online with Dr. Woodall.
A minimum of 50 hours of work per credit hour is required for internships. To estimate the number of credit hours for an internship, consider that for a 15 week semester, one would work 10 hours per week in order to earn 3 credit hours. In order to earn the maximum of 6 credits of POS 484, one would need to work approximately 20 hours per week for 15 weeks. Students should factor this in when planning their schedules.
Yes. POS 484 is offered as an online class. There are no face-to-face meetings, so you can participate in the academic component of class from anywhere!