McGaughy Internship & Professional Development Center

The College of Business and Economics at Longwood University offers an extraordinary undergraduate education in business and economics. One of the many programs that contribute to this excellence is our supervised Business Internship Program.

The internship experience is designed to enhance the traditional curricula of the College of Business and Economics while providing students with real world experiential learning. The program offers a joint opportunity for business executives and Longwood business faculty to shape the education of future business leaders for the global environment.

Internships provide an on-the-job learning experience for students to apply their technical and professional skills to the work situation and to observe organizations in action. The sponsoring firm is asked to provide a challenging learning experience related to the intern's major concentration in the business and economics field. It's a win-win situation in which both the intern and the sponsoring organization gain benefits.

"Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print, experience is what you get when you apply it." 
~Anonymous

Responsibilities of the Intern

Once an intern has been placed with a sponsoring organization, he or she assumes a normal schedule with the firm. During this study assignment, interns are expected to carry out the duties specified in the internship position description and respond in a cooperative spirit to other requests the intern supervisor may make as the term progresses.

In addition to whatever projects are necessary for course credit, interns are required to keep a daily journal of their activities and impressions and to complete a program evaluation at the end of their internship.

Intern Benefits

Interns gain valuable insight into the working world, receive hands-on experience in their fields of interest, enrich their university curriculum and quite literally expand their horizons. In short, interns are better prepared for today's competitive, high-tech corporate world.
Responsibilities of the Sponsor

The goal is to give the intern a realistic work experience - a true perspective of what it is like to work within your organization. The intern works closely with the supervisor at the sponsoring firm and the internship instructor at Longwood to identify the roles and responsibilities for the internship experience. The internship instructor and supervisor monitor the activities of the intern and provide guidance to the intern throughout the internship experience.

Sponsor Benefits

As a sponsor, you'll gain input from an enthusiastic and capable intern - someone who will value the experience and provide you with a fresh, objective view of your organization. You'll also have an opportunity to recruit a future employee whose performance you will have observed in your working environment. Best of all, you'll enjoy the added satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to shape the leadership for the corporate world of tomorrow.

Supervision and Evaluation

Each sponsoring organization appoints a specific supervisor to guide and direct the intern during the internship. Faculty internship advisors from Longwood periodically consult with both the interns and their supervisors to ensure that the experience is progressing well.

At the end of the term, both the supervisor and faculty advisor evaluate the intern's performance. In an effort to enhance and improve our Internship Program, interns are asked to provide us with feedback and evaluate all phases of the internship experience.

• Internship Supervisor Evaluation Form: to be completed by the supervisor of the sponsoring organization.
• Intern Evaluation Form: to be completed by the intern.