Undergraduate and graduate students earn college credit and learn valuable skills while pursuing internships. Students can customize their experience, to a certain extent, to suit their career goals. As a student, you have the opportunity to seek out a potential host for your internship and once you make the arrangements, you contact a faculty member from the Department of History to oversee the internship.
Heidi Fuhrman (far right) with other interns at the National Museum of American History
Within the past few years, our undergraduate students have written an interpretive plan for a history of recorded sound at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Closer to home, our students have created an architectural history of the McCarty Fickel House for the Berthoud Historical Society, developed webpages for Dr. Payne’s “Confinement in the Land of Enchantment” Project, scanned slides from the U.S. Forestry Service for the CSU Archives, conducted resource management for the Rocky Mountain National Park, processed an archival collection at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, and evaluate archival items for the Fairbanks House in Deadham, Massachusetts.
Poppie Gullet (front) on an internship in Antarctica for the McMurdo Dry Valley's Project
Recent graduate students in the Department of History have done similarly exciting projects. They have created school programs for the History Colorado Center, coordinated the digitization of records for the McMurdo Dry Valleys Photo Collection, written finding aids for materials at Yellowstone National Park, provided daily care for the Victorian home at the Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site, assisted with the research, planning, and installation of exhibits at the Global Village Museum, prepare materials for local landmark designations for the city of Fort Collins, researched Native American primary sources for the Scotts Bluff National Monument project, and inventoried materials at the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising at CSU.
For more information on internships, see the information below or contact the chair of undergraduate studies, Diane Margolf at Diane.Margolf@colostate.edu.
Why Do an Internship in History?
- Internships provide history majors and minors with hands-on experience researching, writing, interpreting, and/or applying the skills of the historian outside the classroom. They also provide networking and experience for careers in history.
Here Are Some Common Careers in History
The CSU Career Center Has Ideas and Services
- Link: CSU Career Center
History Students Have Recently Completed These Internships
- PDF: Past Internships
Consider an Internship Not yet Pursued by History Students
These Organizations Like to Get History Internship Applications
- Morgan Library Archives and Special Collections
- PDF: University Press of Colorado
- Others, including Fort Collins Museum of Discovery to be added in the future (coming soon)
Know the Requirements
- To be eligible for a history internship, students must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 in History. We recommend students wait until their junior or senior year to apply for internships. Students may count a maximum of three total credits of Internship and/or Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship as upper-division history elective credits toward completion of the major.
Meet with a Faculty Supervisor
- Before you contact an institution or make plans for your internship, identify and consult a faculty supervisor within the history department.
- Link: Department list of CSU history professors and specializations
Select Institution(s)
- Discuss your ideas about potential organizations with your faculty supervisor and work together to identify an internship supervisor,
- PDF: Past Internships
- PDF: Potential New Internships
- Morgan Library Archives and Special Collections
- PDF: University Press of Colorado
- Others, including Fort Collins Museum of Discovery
Familiarize Yourself with the History Department’s Standards and Guidelines
CSU Career Center Can Help You Build a Strong Application
Create a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA)
- The MoA spells out the responsibilities among you, your faculty supervisor, and your internship supervisor. Design your MoA in consultation with your faculty supervisor and internship supervisor. All three of you must sign it.
- Word Document: Internship Memorandum of Agreement Template_11.2017
Fill out an Internship Application
Submit MoA and Application to Department Chair
- Submit hard copies of your application and the MoA at Clark B356, M-F 7:30-noon, 1:00-4:30.
Get CRN and Register
- After department chair approves internship, get the course registration number (CRN) from the department office staff, Clark B356, M-F 7:30-noon, 1:00-4:30.
What You’ll Produce
- Each history intern will keep a daily log of activities, will meet regularly with the faculty advisor, will compile and submit a portfolio of completed internship work, and will design a final paper, presentation, or other project in consultation with faculty advisor and internship supervisor.
Follow Professional Ethics
- Be sure to review Section VI. Ethics from the History Department’s Standards & Guidelines
- PDF: Standards and Guidelines
Tell Us About Your Experience
- Please submit pictures, quotes, videos, or other media documenting your internship to your faculty supervisor for posting on this webpage.
Internship Supervisor Submits Evaluative Reports
Faculty Supervisor Submits Your Grade
