Internships & Independent studies

Artifacts, Stories, and New Perspectives

From Fort Collins’ Avery House to the National Air and Space Museum, there are opportunities for History majors to explore what they love, engage in research, and make connections. Whether students choose to go to graduate school or straight into careers after graduation, internships provide hands on experience in using the skills developed in history courses.

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Ready to get started?

To earn class credit in your internship, you’ll need a 3.0 GPA. Most people do their internships their junior or senior year, but it's never too early to start planning.

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Talk to our Internship Coordinator

The Internship Coordinator can help you:

  • Find internship resources
  • Find a faculty advisor
  • Navigate the application process
  • Understand and fill out required forms
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Find a Faculty Internship Advisor

Any faculty member in the History Department can advise your internship. If you enjoy a specific class, talk to that professor about internship opportunities and ask if that person will be your faculty internship advisor.

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Connect with the Career Center

Many students use Handshake to find internships. The Career Center also has other resources that may come in handy, like helping you build a CV and write a resumé.

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Take Hist 479
"The practice of Public History"

This course introduces undergraduates to Public History - the kind of history you encounter in museums, documentaries, archives, and libraries. Public History internships are some of the most sought after.

Students in this class apply for internships as one of the assignments, so you will have plenty of support and guidance.

How do I Complete my Internship?

Internship sponsors – like museums, government offices, or businesses – set the requirements for an internship. Sponsors require a certain number of work hours and might have interns create a product or assist in a variety of projects. These will be set out in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) before the internship starts. Your internship sponsor will also provide an evaluation of your work. If you have questions about this process, contact the Internship Coordinator, name TBA.

If you are taking the internship for credit, your faculty advisor will likely ask for a journal of your activities. The MOA also requires a short reflection story with images, if possible, which is shared on the History Department website.

Contact the Internship Coordinator for more information

Adam Thomas

  • Associate Teaching Professor
  • Undergraduate Internship Coordinator
  • History Club/Phi Alpha Theta Advisor

Explore CSU History Majors' Internship Stories

Read about internship experiences at CSU, in Fort Collins and beyond. These stories can help you find local and regional groups that have worked with CSU History majors. The stories can also help you think of other organizations to contact about their internship opportunities.

Corinne Neustadter, PLHC intern, Fall 2021

April 25, 2022

This past semester, I interned at CSU’s Public Lands History Center and had the opportunity to learn more about environmental history and public history. As an intern, I wrote two blog posts for the PLHC’s website, one on the history of water management in Las Vegas and another on how popular literature about the outdoors […]

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Lauren Hennessey, Public Lands History Center

April 21, 2022

My name is Lauren Hennessey, and I am a third-year student at CSU majoring in history. I had the wonderful opportunity to intern at the Public Lands History Center in Spring 2022 and work alongside the Center’s program manager, Ariel Schnee, Director, Dr. Jared Orsi, and a team of graduate students. This was my first […]

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Autumn Haase, Research Assistant to Dr. Ann Little

July 22, 2021

I assisted Dr. Ann Little with her research during the Spring semester of 2021. The internship was focused on publications and magazines in the AAS Historical Periodicals Collection Series 1 archive from the CSU Library regarding the emergence of the empire-waisted dress (Image 1) in women’s fashion, why it appeared in the late 18th century […]

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Adeline Renstrom, Public Lands History Center, 2019

March 15, 2021

History can be used to determine the worth of a park, a house, or a story told by someone and all that information that is derived from historical research can then in turn change the outcome of the future.

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Nora Simón, Fort Collins District Office for Congressman Joe Neguse, 2019

March 15, 2021

My favorite part of this experience was gaining a new understanding of how history plays a role in the legislative process.

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Logan Haas, Public Lands History Center, 2019

March 15, 2021

During this internship I had the opportunity to see the day to day operation of a research based organization, assist in organizing a Brown Bag lunch, help advertise the American West Program, and write a blog post for the PLHC’s website.  When I first started I was nervous that I would be out of place at the PLHC, but ultimately I managed to fit in there.

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Charlie Dreyer, Documentary Film Project Internship, 2019

March 15, 2021

Throughout my time both volunteering and interning with the CSU150 project, I have found myself learning new and interesting History, gaining new skills, and improving my ability to convey information to others in a positive and enjoyable manner.

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Suazo Brandt, Public Lands History Center, 2019

March 15, 2021

At the PLHC we built oral history info documents, reorganized oral histories, and worked as part of a team preserving important historic information.

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Michael Garside (Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 2019)

November 19, 2020

During my spring semester at Colorado State University, I had the privilege of working as an intern for the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery(FCMOD). I was tasked to work for the archive team and assist on projects that would prove crucial for the organization. At first I was a bit nervous as I had not […]

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Ann Gebo (U.S. National Archives, 2019)

November 19, 2020

At the National Archives I worked in the reference department, meaning I was helping researchers. In particular, I was an intern for the Navy team, working primarily with Naval records. I helped researchers who came into the archives pull deck logs (day to day records logging the location of a ship) for different Navy vessels. […]

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Independent Studies

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HISTORY 487

Students who want to enrich their knowledge of a specific theme or aspect of history can pursue an independent study in cooperation with a faculty mentor in the History department. Faculty mentors and students work together to build a research proposal and the faculty mentor guides and supervises the project. If you are interested in learning more about the Independent Study process, speak to your Academic Success Coordinator (ASC) or contact the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator.

Cassie Franks

November 18, 2020

Independent Study Research Process During my fall, 2019 semester at CSU, I created a podcast that explained and discussed the role of army nurses in the Vietnam war. To create this podcast, I had the opportunity to do my senior capstone project as an independent study with Dr. Little. She guided me in the research […]

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Alaina Franklin

November 16, 2020

During the fall semester of my senior year here at CSU I got the opportunity to work closely with a history professor, Dr. Ann Little, on an independent study research project that substituted for my senior capstone seminar class. This opportunity allowed me to combine my passion for history with my family’s personal experience with […]

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