Student Guide to Internships

This guide outlines the credit internship enrollment process at Prince George’s Community College.  If you have already completed some steps, proceed to the next step in sequence.

Step 1

Go to College Central Network (CCN) to activate your student account. If you cannot activate your CCN student account, create a new student account. Use your 7-digit PGCC student ID number as your User ID. Create a password and save it in a safe place for expedient site access.

Step 2 

Once your CCN student account has been activated or created, complete the registration (account profile) data. Complete the registration data as if you were completing a job application. The registration data can be updated at any time. Use capitalization when appropriate. Remember, employers can see your registration data! Add your major, availability, special skills, etc. as a part of your profile to appeal to hiring employers. Allow your CCN student account to receive job announcements, career event notices, and information on special recruitments that match your profile and career interests. 

Step 3

Prepare a professional résumé and schedule an appointment with an academic and career advisor for a résumé critique using Navigate. Be sure to submit your résumé draft in Navigate when scheduling your résumé critique appointment. For résumé development guidance, listen to the CCN podcast on résumés and review the CCN Career Documents for tips on how to write a competitive résumé and cover letter. Free résumé builder tools are available here: College Central Network, Career Coach, Resume Target, Resume Genius, and My Perfect Resume. Submit your advisor-approved résumé in College Central Network (CCN) for final review and activation by the Office of Career Development and Internships (CD&I) staff.

Step 4

Once your résumé is activated by a CD&I staff member, you may begin to search for an internship using CCN search engines (My School’s Jobs, Jobs Central® and Intern Central®).  Remember, it is your responsibility to secure an internship position. Before contacting employers, log into CCN and click on Experiential Learning. Print out the posted documents to share with potential employers. Do not complete the Experiential Learning Agreement (ELA) until after you have secured a position.

Step 5

Observe course enrollment deadlines (see Appendix A) as you search for opportunities. Check CCN daily to see current and new internship opportunities that have been posted. Also check your email accounts to see if any employers have reached out to you, or if you received email from CCN. Inform your instructors that you are searching for an internship position and ask if they can provide you with referrals. If you are already working in a position related to your degree program, identify a special project/task with your employer that is beyond your current paid assignment; share the Employer Steps to Request a CCN Account and the Employer Guide to Internships with your site supervisor. 

Once the special project/task is agreed upon by your employer, submit your Experiential Learning Agreement to your department chair through CCN to determine if your department chair will allow you to use your current employer for your internship experience. Credit-worthiness of an internship opportunity, resulting in a departmental approval, is determined by the student’s position meeting the NACE Guidelines (see Appendix A) and/or credentialing agency requirements, and the College’s academic program requirements.  

Step 6

Once you have secured an internship position, login to College Central Network (CCN) and click on Experiential Learning. Scroll down to your academic program and select it to complete the Experiential Learning Agreement. Complete the entire Experiential Learning Agreement before submitting it for review.

Step 7

Your submitted Experiential Learning Agreement will be forwarded to your department chair for approval and then it will be sent electronically through CCN to your employer for approval.  You will receive emails from College Central Network (CCN) notifying you whether or not your Experiential Learning Agreement has been approved. Once your agreement is approved by your department chair and employer, you will be assigned a faculty sponsor and be registered for the corresponding internship course. An email will be sent to you identifying your faculty sponsor. If you decide not to do the internship course, it is your responsibility to drop the course promptly through Navigate or Owl Link.  

Step 8

Once your faculty sponsor has been identified and the name shared with you, immediately reach out to your faculty sponsor to clarify course objectives and to obtain assignments related to your internship experience. If you have difficulty reaching your faculty sponsor, send an email to the Office of Career Development and Internships (CD&I) at CareerServices@pgcc.edu for assistance. Upon starting your internship experience, keep track of the hours you work daily to ensure that you satisfy clock-hour credit requirements; review the College’s Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination policy (see Appendix B). 

Step 9

In addition to documenting your worked hours, keep a journal of all the activities and tasks you are involved in on a daily basis as well as who you interact with during your internship experience. This documentation will make it much easier for you to complete assignments for your faculty sponsor.

Step 10

At the end of your internship experience, update your résumé and add your internship experience and new skills to it. Inquire of your internship contacts if they would agree to serve as a professional reference; if so, obtain their contact information. Provide your references with a copy of your updated résumé as a professional courtesy. Keep a list of your professional contacts that you met during your internship experience to use as references when you apply for future career opportunities. Be sure to inform your references prior to submitting their names so they will be aware and prepared to provide the requested reference.

Administrative Deadlines (Appendix A):

Prince George's Community College uses the adapted National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) criteria below to evaluate proposed internship experiences.

Criteria For An Experience To Be Defined As An Internship

To ensure that an experience—whether it is a traditional internship or one conducted remotely or virtually—is educational, and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship by the NACE definition, all the following criteria must be met:

1. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.
2. The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
3. The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications. 
4. There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.
5. There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
6. There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.
7. There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.
8. There is a plan in place for the protection of the health and safety of all employees and volunteers on site. Student is provided all necessary guidelines to ensure their health and safety on site.
9. I understand that the College is not responsible for accidents/injuries/medical conditions and resulting treatment which occur on-campus, traveling to and from the [internship site], or while at the [internship site], and I hold the College harmless and release the College from all liability and responsibility for all injuries, expenses, and any other damages which arise from exposure to any communicable disease, including but not limited to COVID-19.
10.  The acceptance of a paid or non-paid intern is acknowledgement of the above stated criteria.

Required Hours for Experiential Learning Experience (Internship):

The tables below identify the internship type (non-paid or paid) and the required clock hours to be worked for each credit allocation (1 to 3 credits) per internship course. Students who fail to meet the minimum number of required hours by the end of the course for the semester/term may not receive a passing grade for the ELE.

Non-Paid Internship

Paid Internship

Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policies (Appendix B):

Prince George’s Community College is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons to the end that no person, on the ground of sex, age, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, or status as a qualified individual with a disability, qualified disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity of this institution. Under this policy, the institution will not discriminate against any person on the ground of sex, race, age, color, religion, veteran’s status, disability, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, or national origin in its admission policies and practices or any other polices or practices of the institution relating to the treatment of students and other individuals, including employment, the provision of services, financial aid, and other benefits, and including the use of any building, structure, room space, materials, equipment, facility, or any other property. This policy is consistent with Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments; Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, as amended; Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and other applicable laws and regulations. One who believes oneself or any specific class of individual to be subject to prohibited discrimination may, by themselves or through a representative, file a written complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education or with the college president, or both. Susan Watson, Room 133, Kent Hall, 301-546-7011, coordinates the college’s program of nondiscrimination.