What is an internship?
An internship provides an invaluable learning experience, an opportunity to explore a potential career field, a chance to learn and teach history beyond the classroom, and a vehicle for gaining hands-on experience that will enhance any resume, graduate school application, or law school application, regardless of the nature of the internship itself.
The details and duties of any internship will vary according to the student, the site, and the site supervisor, but in general an internship will require 120 hours of work related to the site's operations (an average of 8 hours per week over the course of a 15-week semester, or 120 hours over the course of a summer session).
Ideally, an internship will supplement, enhance, and allow you to apply what you've learned in your history classes. You might work in a museum, at a historic site, in a local library or archive, with a historical organization, or with a local government agency. You'll enter your internship as a history student, but you'll quickly learn that "history" outside of an academic setting means much more than lectures, books, papers, and grades.
HIST 497 - Internship
- Students will apply historical methods and analytical skills at a non-profit or for-profit site such as a museum, archive, preservation office, government office, or other research or historical site.
- Instructor approval and junior standing required to register. Variable credit, 1-3. Offered Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters.
- Download the necessary forms for more information and to receive credit for a HIST 497 Internship,
Foley History Internships
- Gonzaga University Archives and Special Collections accepts one Foley History Intern per semester. The History Department will select the intern. Download an application.
- Download information and details on potential internship projects at Foley.
- For more information on internships, contact Dr. Veta Schlimgen (schlimgen@gonzaga.edu).
Woldson Digital Humanities Internship
- Each semester, Digital Humanities and History select interns to work on the development of digital and physical exhibits for the Woldson Performing Arts Center.
- Download the application to get started.
- For more information on internships, contact Dr. Veta Schlimgen (schlimgen@gonzaga.edu).
Below you will find links to organizations that may be looking for interns.
Local
- https://www.northwestmuseum.org/
- https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/StaticContent/volunteers
- https://www.historicspokane.org/
Regional
- https://votesmart.org/internships/#.UO8JDaWPURl
- https://www.washingtonbus.org/get-on-the-bus/intern-with-bus/
- https://www.sos.wa.gov/library/
- https://www.olympicnationalparks.com/employment/
- https://www.nbr.org/About/join.aspx
- https://seattleareaarchivists.org/2010/10/12/looking-for-student-volunteers/
- https://www.archives.gov/pacific-alaska/seattle/volunteer.html
National
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/internships/
- https://www.monticello.org/site/about/jobs
- https://www.nps.gov/personnel/intern.htm
- https://www.archives.gov/careers/
- https://www.si.edu/support/internships
- https://www.npg.si.edu/education/internships.html
Sites to Search
- https://www.idealist.org/
- https://www.coolworks.com/internships/
- https://www.job-hunt.org/
- https://www.volunteermatch.org/
Also, consider contacting your local libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, courthouse, diocese, and parks about internship opportunities or to create your own voluntary internship. Most organizations would welcome your labor in exchange for you gaining some work experience.