Internships
Construction Internship Program (CIP)
Architects and landscape architects have an essential connection to the building industry and must know about construction techniques and materials. The KSA CIP enhances the bond between design and building and provides an efficient way to teach design students the potential and limits of materials and current construction techniques. The program provides both architecture and landscape architecture students with opportunities to comprehend material and assembly issues, learn to estimate construction costs, experience the full implementation process, understand the project management process, and gain summer employment in a relevant industry. By spending ten weeks learning firsthand the various aspects of the construction industry, students are better able to understand the full process of creation.
CRP Internship/Traineeship Program
The City and Regional Planning Internship/Traineeship provides exciting opportunities for students to both receive financial assistance for their graduate work and to gain professional work experience while taking classes. A substantial percentage of students in the Masters of City and Regional Planning program participate in the program. Each student receives a fee and tuition waiver and works for 20 hours per week for a stipend.
To be eligible for an internship or traineeship a student needs to be admitted unconditionally to the program or be a continuing student in good academic standing within the program. Students provide their resumes and the department sends groups of resumes to each potential intern sponsor. Sponsors choose students to interview based on the resumes and then select interns based on the interviews. Thus students start early in their professional careers to learn about resume writing and presenting themselves well in interview settings. When students graduate with an and have been part of this program they are assured not only of excellent academic training, but also of real job experience. The two in combination are a large part of the reason why our graduates consistently have little trouble obtaining good jobs in their field immediately after graduation. and have been part of this program they are assured not only of excellent academic training, but also of real job experience. The two in combination are a large part of the reason why our graduates consistently have little trouble obtaining good jobs in their field immediately after graduation.
Internship/traineeship positions vary each year but some of the typical internships include working in the Neighborhood Services Division of the city of Columbus government, at the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, in state government offices (especially the Departments of Development and Transportation), and in the county and suburban jurisdictions' planning offices. In addition some students work at private nonprofit organizations, such as Columbus Housing Partnership and even some private planning firms.
The student interns and trainees work as professional staff members at the sponsoring organizations. They have individual projects and team activities. They attend meetings, work with the citizens and community groups, do analyses, write papers, make maps and prepare presentations. Recent examples of projects student interns have worked on include:
- A study of the planned future uses of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit projects in the state of Ohio after their 15 year affordability requirement expires;
- Development of the web site for Columbus Housing Partnership;
- Neighborhood plans for a variety of Columbus neighborhoods (for example, North and South Linden, Clintonville, the King-Lincoln area, etc.);
- The Creekside Park redevelopment in downtown Gahanna;
- Research projects on topics such as neighborhood history, census studies, special kinds of zoning, housing quality, vacant properties, and many other projects selected by neighborhood residents as being particularly important to their areas;
- The creation of a special tax district for Columbus' downtown area to fund additional maintenance and beautification projects;
- Plans for new developments in neighborhoods with open or abandoned sites ready for new uses;
- Brochures and other materials for different communities and community events;
- Designing and producing a variety of maps for different needs, for example, zoning maps, environmentally important sites, historically important sites, land use maps and so on.;
- Work on the design and development of Columbus' new Arena District;
- Work on inventory and analysis for the City of Delaware Comprehensive plan
Click here to see examples of recent internship projects.
Process for assigning Internships during the academic year
At the beginning of each quarter new and continuing students will be given the opportunity to submit or update their resumes and to ask for consideration for internships. This opportunity will be offered by e-mail via the school mailing list, so students are responsible for making sure that they are on the mailing list, for keeping their mail cleared so that new messages can be accepted and for checking their e-mail regularly.
This process is a way for the department to gain information about which students are available for and interested in an internship. Only students in good academic standing as regular students in the City and Regional Planning graduate program are eligible. Submitting a resume through this process does not guarantee any student that the student's resume will be sent out, or that if sent out, the student will gain an internship. If a student is judged to be ineligible for an internship the student will be notified as soon as possible after the student submits a request.
Students will be considered for submission of their resumes to sponsors in the following order:
1. Students to whom the Section has made formal commitments of funding
2. Other students based on keeping a balance between first and second year students who have internships
3. All other students.
This priority order may shift to meet the needs of sponsors, but it is a general description of the priorities of the Section.
The Section will keep a set of intern sponsors with whom we have a relationship and will arrange with them details such as how many resumes they want to see and what skills they want to see. We will submit resumes of eligible students to the sponsors based on the sponsors' needs and our priorities, but the final choice of intern will be the sponsor's decision. Students should understand that sponsors have specific needs and will hire to fulfill those (for example, English language ability may be important to a sponsor and may affect the hiring decision).
When the Section begins to send out a particular student's resume, we will notify the student that this process has begun. If the student does not hear from the Section, the student should assume that the resume has not yet been sent to any sponsors. If the student has any questions they should be directed to Tamara Dunaeff (Graduate Programs Coordinator) or to Professor Hazel Morrow-Jones.
Any student may find a paid internship on her or his own and ask the Section for a fee and tuition waiver to go with it. The internship and the student must both meet the Section's requirements. The student must be in good academic standing as a regular student in the City and Regional Planning graduate program. The internship must pay the student between $10 and $15 per hour for 20 hours of work per week (240 hours per quarter) in a planning related field. The intern sponsor must be aware that the student's first priority is school work and be willing to adjust the intern's schedule accordingly.
To request a fee and tuition waiver for a position outside the Section's pre-arranged group, the student must supply a letter from the potential sponsor agreeing to the terms above and laying out the kind of work the student will do. If a student requests a fee and tuition waiver for an internship he or she has found, the graduate chair will consider whether the Section has any available waivers for this purpose and whether the graduate school or College would consider providing one. The graduate chair will inform the student within one month of the request what the standing of the request is. Students should be aware that gaining a fee and tuition waiver in this way is much less likely now than it has been at times in the past.
Students may also gain valuable professional experience outside the Section's formal internship program by holding a position without a fee and tuition waiver whether that position is paid or voluntary in nature.
While the Section will strive to find internships with fee and tuition waivers for all eligible students who would like one, we are unable to guarantee a position to everyone. Students with questions about internships should check with Tamara Dunaeff or Professor Hazel Morrow-Jones.
Information for Intern Sponsors
How to obtain an intern for your organization:
1. First, contact the graduate chair and internship coordinator in the City and Regional Planning program. This is currently Professor Hazel Morrow-Jones ( (614) 292-1027). You will need to provide a job description (or descriptions) and tell me what skills /interests you want the students to have, when you want the person(s) to start and how many resumes you would like to look at. If you already have an intern or interns and want to either add more or replace students who are graduating it is helpful if you let us know as early as possible. This assists our planning and makes sure that you have the best selection of students for your position. City and Regional Planning program. This is currently Professor Hazel Morrow-Jones ( (614) 292-1027). You will need to provide a job description (or descriptions) and tell me what skills /interests you want the students to have, when you want the person(s) to start and how many resumes you would like to look at. If you already have an intern or interns and want to either add more or replace students who are graduating it is helpful if you let us know as early as possible. This assists our planning and makes sure that you have the best selection of students for your position.
2. We will go through the files for the eligible students and send you the number of resumes that you want. We will always consider your needs in making the selection, but we also have our own goals in terms of placing students, so the resumes we select may reflect our goals as well as yours.
3. You set up interviews with potential interns yourself as soon as you are ready to do so (the sooner, the better) and then make your hiring decision. If you want to see more resumes, we will send you more.
4. The students might have more than one offer, so you and the student(s) you choose may negotiate on issues such as salary (please stay within the $10 to $15 per hour range and 20 hours per week during the school year).
5. Once you and an eligible student from our program have reached agreement please call the Graduate Programs Office (292-8370) to finalize the paperwork. They will take care of the fee and tuition waiver.
Other important information about interns:
We ask that you commit to keeping the student through the academic year (unless, of course, they aren't doing good work). They are supposed to work an average of 20 hours per week for somewhere between $10 and $15/hour. The work student interns do should be mainly planning-related tasks, though a certain amount of drudgery is expected. We do not want anyone placed in a situation in which they only file papers and make coffee.
The student is required to carry 15 quarter hours of graduate work and get a B or better to be eligible to continue the internship. Most students complete their degree in two years and we strongly encourage them to stay with the same intern sponsor (assuming the sponsor is willing) for the whole time. The students are also required to attend a seminar that meets three times a quarter all year long to discuss their internships and hear guest speakers on different kinds of planning.
There are students available to start in any quarter of the year, so please contact us any time that you think you would like an intern. If a student approaches you, you are completely at liberty to hire that person, but you need to be aware that the person may not be eligible for a fee and tuition waiver from our program.
Please be aware that the interns are students first and your employees second. This means that they need flexibility in their schedules to handle their class work and changes in their normal timing, such as final exams. Of course they should discuss this with you in advance and work out an acceptable schedule.
The fact that the interns are students also means that any information about them is covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). NO information about students of any kind may be shared with anyone unless you have the student's permission in writing. supercedes the Ohio sunshine laws. For example if your policy is to put all employee contact information on a web site, you will need to get the student's permission before including the student's information. If you are reviewing resumes for a possible intern you may not discuss them with anyone outside the decision process. The record of the student selected may not be discussed with others. Even telling others which student resumes you have or have not seen may be a violation of privacy. supercedes the Ohio sunshine laws. For example if your policy is to put all employee contact information on a web site, you will need to get the student's permission before including the student's information. If you are reviewing resumes for a possible intern you may not discuss them with anyone outside the decision process. The record of the student selected may not be discussed with others. Even telling others which student resumes you have or have not seen may be a violation of privacy.
If your position requires the student to attend evening meetings please discuss this with the student during the interview process. Students should not be spending most of their evenings in public meetings as a matter of course. For special, limited-duration, projects, this may be acceptable, but it should not be the norm. Please limit the average evening meeting attendance to no more than one per week.
If you have any questions or concerns at any time during the selection process or as you work with your intern(s), please contact Jennifer Evans-Cowley