The summer internship is a highly valuable opportunity for many students, even those who may have already met the internship requirement.
An internship may lead to employment opportunities, give insight into the nature of career choices open to LBJ School graduates or provide an institutional experience where none was previously available to the student. The LBJ School internship remains available to all who opt to use it as part of an individual experience (for ADMINISTRATIVE CREDIT), or as a faculty-supervised internship course (for ACADEMIC CREDIT on the credit/no credit basis).
Each student in the full-time option or in a dual-degree program may meet the internship requirement by taking an appropriately supervised internship for administrative credit (completing an internship without registering for the internship course); opting to take the PA 396K (three credit-hour) internship elective course; or waiving the requirement by documenting suitable prior public service employment and/or internship experience.
The goal of the internship requirement is to ensure that the student has received or will receive the opportunity to participate in and observe, as a full-time working member of the staff, the daily activities of a local, state, or federal government agency or a nongovernmental agency with a public policy focus. Ideally, the student is assigned tasks which utilize the skills and experience gained in the first year of the academic program and which prepare him or her for the advanced coursework of the second year.
Past students have found internship opportunities throughout the United States at all levels of government -- the Congress, federal agencies and commissions, state executive offices and legislative committees, regional councils of governments, and municipal agencies and offices -- and in many areas of the private sector. Internships are also available in a variety of international settings, including U.S. embassies abroad, United Nations organizations, and agencies of foreign governments.
Internship Requirements:
Completion of one year at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, including three common core courses: PA 391/Public Financial Management, PA 397/Introduction to Empirical Methods for Policy Analysis, and PA 393K/Applied Microeconomics for Policy Analysis; one of the following flexible core courses: PA 384C/Public Management, PA 397C/Advanced Empirical Methods for Policy Analysis, PA 393L/Advanced Policy Economics, and PA 383C/Politics and Process; and the two-semester Policy Research Project (PA 680 PA and PA 680 PB).
Student internships must be approved by the MPAff Graduate Advisor PRIOR to the beginning of the internship (internship requests are NOT approved retroactively). To request internship approval, return the MPAff Internship Approval Request form, along with an employment offer letter from the internship placement agency, to the MPAff Graduate Coordinator PRIOR to starting your internship. You will be notified of the Graduate Advisor's decision within two (business) weeks. Students must receive internship approval PRIOR to registering for the PA 396K MPAff internship credit.
To receive credit for having completed the internship requirement (for either administrative OR academic credit), student interns and their internship supervisors MUST submit an evaluation of the internship to the MPAff Graduate Program Coordinator no later than 5:00 PM on the last class day of the semester in which the student interns.