The LBJ School Internship

The summer internship program administered by the LBJ School is a highly valuable opportunity for many students, even those who may already have met the internship requirement. An internship may lead to employment opportunities, give insight into the nature of career choices open to LBJ School graduates or provide an institutional experience where none was previously available to the student. The LBJ School internship program remains available to all who opt to use it as part of an individual experience, or as a faculty-supervised internship course for academic credit.

Each student in the full-time option or in a dual-degree program may meet the internship requirement by taking an appropriately supervised internship for no credit; opting to take a three-credit hour internship course as an elective; or waiving the requirement by documenting suitable prior public service employment and/or internship experience.

The goal of the internship requirement is to ensure that the student has received or will receive the opportunity to participate in a 400 hour (minimum) internship placement and observe, as a full-time working member of the staff, the daily activities of a local, state, or federal government agency or a nongovernmental agency with a public policy focus. Ideally, the student is assigned tasks which utilize the skills and experience gained in the first year of the academic program and which prepare him or her for the advanced coursework of the second year.

Those seeking an internship will find opportunities throughout the United States at all levels of government -- the Congress, federal agencies and commissions, state executive offices and legislative committees, regional councils of governments, and municipal agencies and offices -- and in many areas of the private sector. Internships are also available in a variety of international settings, including U.S. embassies abroad, United Nations organizations, and agencies of foreign governments.

The LBJ School adheres to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) guidelines for unpaid internships.

MGPS Program Internship Pre-requisites:

• Consent of the Program Graduate Advisor

MPAff Program Internship Pre-requisites:

• Completion of one year at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, including three common core courses: Public Financial Management, Introduction to Quantitative Analysis, and Applied Microeconomics for Policy; one of the following flexible core courses: Advanced Management, Advanced Empirical Methods for Policy Analysis, Advanced Policy Economics, and Politics and Process; and the two-semester Policy Research Project
• Consent of the Program Graduate Advisor

For more information, contact: