Internship Journal
A reflective journal of internship experiences must be kept on a weekly basis (e.g. one entry per 10-15 hours of work). This is a good vehicle for documenting not only your internship activities, but also an opportunity for you to reflect on the learning that is occurring during your internship. The journal is NOT meant to be a listing of “what I did this week.” Instead, your journal entries should be based on what you learned, what you observed, what you thought or what you felt during your time at the work station. The journal can be thought of as a documentation of the “sites, sounds and smells” of your learning experience including “the good, the bad and the ugly!”
Journal entries should be typed, single spaced and approximately 1/2-3/4 of a page in length (unless you really have an interesting occurrence you wish to share). If you are completing a summer internship and working full time, journal entries should be made every other day since your 150 hours are completed in about 4 weeks. If you are working part-time in the summer, the weekly entries are sufficient. Following are some suggestions that may be used for entries:
• Early in the experience you may wish to briefly describe the organizational structure, company products, or other things relating to what you have learned about the company or the industry in which they compete.
• Write about how you were able to apply something you have learned in class on the job.
• Did you find that the knowledge you have acquired in the classroom is different from what you have observed in the actual workplace?
• Did you observe someone who handled a situation in a particularly good or bad way?
• How are you progressing toward your original objectives?
• Describe a critical incident where you had to think fast, make a decision, or deal with an irate customer or employee. How did you react? How did others react? Were you able to contribute to the solution?
• What skills have you observed in others that you would like to develop?
• Is this the type of company you would like to work for? Why or why not?
• How are things different from the way you thought they were going to be in this career or company?
Treat the journal as a diary. Include your frustrations along with your successes. Whereas the report may be shared with the final workstation, the journal will only be submitted and read by the Internship Coordinator or other appropriate faculty.
