Internship Guide

Although the weekly logs are required, the main reason you should put considerable effort into completing them thoroughly is because they will then be documentation for what you experienced and learned as an intern.  When you are applying for future jobs, especially if you have little experience in your career field, you can include information on your resume about what you accomplished as an intern.  Even if you only assisted on projects or created one page of a multi-page website, that is still experience that you can indicate to a future employer.

It is important for your internship coordinator to know what you are doing on the job for several reasons:

• To assure that you are observing ethical restraints;
• To assure that you are performing duties for which you are qualified; and
• To assure that you are learning from your experiences.

Make sure that your entries are grammatically correct, typed and concise--focused, brief, but still including the relevant points and events/actions.  (These logs should possess professional quality writing.)  Be sure to discuss your experiences in detail--you should aim for a length of one page PER DAY in a diary-like, narrative format.  The logs should include all areas—administrative, clinical, and interpersonal relations--that make up your experience as a worker at your site.  

One way to keep track of your duties and activities is to keep a running log in a shortened form as you go throughout your day/hours, including time notations for major events (e.g. 11AM, department meeting discussing new client project).  Depending on your preference (and internship site rules), you could record your notes in a paper planner/notebook or on a device.  Then you can more easily convert your notes to sentence form rather than trying to write about the entire week from memory. 

In addition to a summary of your week (or your 40 hours worked) and the highlights of each day, you should include descriptions of the following, as applicable:

• Any issues or questions you have experienced during the week
  • How were the issues resolved (or not resolved)?
  • What were the answers to your questions (or are they still unanswered)?
• Any new learning experiences
  • Did you learn technology, a new procedure, visit a different site/office?
  • Did you learn from your site supervisor or someone else in the organization?
  • Do you think the new experience will help you in your future employment?
• Reflections of the past week
  • What was positive about the week, and what was negative?
  • What, if anything, would you like to change about the week's experiences?