Internships
We encourage students to integrate theory and practice, and continually to make connections between academic study and life in the world outside the university. Our Department’s Internship/Field Work requirement expresses this commitment in a concrete way.
Women’s Studies majors generally satisfy the Internship/Field Work requirement through taking the six-credit internship course, WOST 490/490A, in the junior or senior year. For this course, students work on a volunteer basis from eight to fifteen hours per week during the semester in a supervised field placement, generally in an agency dedicated in some way to activism or service on behalf of women, such as a women’s shelter, health clinic, publication, or advocacy group. Simultaneously, students meet in a weekly seminar to discuss the progress of the intern work, evaluate field learning, and to examine topics such as the ideology and structure of the helping professions, human services and social change, dynamics issues in feminist non-profit organizations, and applications of feminist theory of social change in real-world organizational settings.
Internship placements can be very rewarding learning experiences in themselves, and even when problems occur with the placement, valuable lessons emerge and students receive support from the seminar problem-solving discussions. Often our graduates have the opportunity of continuing paid employment with the same agency in which they interned in their senior year.
Recent internship placements include:
Plymouth County Correctional Facility Domestic Violence Education Program
UMass Boston Women’s Center Coordinator
Teen Voices Magazine editorial intern
New Mission High School, assistant to social worker
Boston Glass (an organization supporting queer youth)
Slice of Rice (a newly organized non-profit for queer Asian youth)
Peer Mentor/Teaching Assistant, Women’s Studies intro course, UMass Boston
Women’s Resource Center, Lawrence, Mass (a battered women’s facility)
Here are some of the comments students have made about the value of internships in writing about the experience afterwards:
“My experience helped me discover employment possibilities in my field of interest, and my supervisor provided a much-needed work reference.”
“Most important for me was the opportunity to clarify my own values and attitudes concerning work and community service.”
“I was gratified to discover how many skills I already had, and to be able to formulate new skill objectives.”
“I learned so much about the way organizations are structured and decisions are made, knowledge which I can use in a variety of situations.”
“Overall, I am very glad to have had the experience of working in a shelter, and will always remember the impact it had on me, and my understanding of funding and grants for such programs and why it is so necessary to pay qualified individuals well to do these jobs.”
“I have grown so much overall as a person. The way I perceive my abilities to get things done and my confidence have increased tremendously and I am so happy with the person that is leaving this internship.”
“This position has taught me that I enjoy being in charge and has enabled me to improve my leadership skills as well as many other necessary and practical skills, which will hopefully help me to gain a position of prominence following graduation or to help me start my own business.”
Honors Work in Women’s Studies (Departmental Honors)
For majors who are highly academically motivated and considering graduate work, the Department offers the opportunity to design and complete an extensive “mini-thesis” research paper, under the supervision of one of the Women’s Studies faculty. Admission to Honors work (generally in the senior year) requires a grade point average of at least 3.3. Successful completion of two semesters of Honors work is recognized at the university’s Honors Convocation, and on the transcript.
Selected List of Women’s Studies Honors papers:
“Bawdy Bodies: The Burlesque Revival” (Natalia Cooper, 2005)
“Challenges of Implementing a Batterer Intervention Program in a Correctional Facility” (Amanda Greene, 2005)
“A Matter of Fists and Feathers: Sexuality and the Gendered Construction of Cuban Nation, 1959-1971” (Daniel Rodriguez, 2004)
“The Limits of Transnational Human-rights Oriented Activism in Opposing Honor Killings” (Sabah Uddin, 2001)
“In Strength and Struggle: Lessons from the Battered Women’s Movement” (Claire MacNeill, 2000)
“The Politics of Identity: Exploring Concepts of Bisexuality” (Christa Lyons, 1998)
“The Battered Women’s Movement and Its Impact on Police Practice” (Atsuko Takakura, 1998)
“Quilting Women: A Study of Quilting’s Place in the Contemporary Culture” (Jackie Cornog, 1997)
If you are interested in Honors work, be sure to contact the Department chairperson at least by pre-registration in the semester prior to your senior year, to check your eligibility and inform yourself about the procedures for finding a faculty advisor and writing an Honors proposal.
Women’s Studies Book Award (College Honors or Distinction)
Each year the Department designates one of its most academically talented graduating seniors as the recipient of the Book Award in Women’s Studies. The honors designation “Distinction in Women’s Studies” accompanies the Book Award, and the recipient’s name is listed in the Honors Convocation booklet.
Women’s Studies Founders’ Award for Academic Excellence and Social Activism
This is a monetary prize and special award for which Women’s Studies majors may apply in the senior year, by submitting a personal statement, along with two letters of reference; one from a professor familiar with the applicant’s academic work and one from someone with knowledge of her record of social activism. (The deadline for application is around March 15 each year, but please be sure to check with the Department chairperson for details.) A committee designated by the Advisory Board reviews the applications and chooses the award recipients. The recipient is recognized by the Department at the college’s Honors Convocation in May.
Social activism is defined broadly in determining eligibility for the award. Frequently the recipients of the Award have performed service for the Women’s Studies Department and other organizations on campus, as well as community-based work through internships, volunteering, and occasionally paid employment. Political and cultural activism, educational outreach, and social service work on behalf of women and girls are all included in the histories of our Founders’ Award recipients. Award recipients have also been concerned with poverty, homophobia, and other social issues.
Women’s Studies Department Advisory Board Service
The Advisory Board consists of WOST faculty, affiliated faculty, and student members. The board meets two or three times a semester to approve new courses, plan special events for the Women’s Studies community, and advise the Department chairperson in assessing the overall effectiveness of the Department and recommending changes as necessary.
Participation on the Advisory Board is a rewarding way of networking, as well as an opportunity to help shape the continuing growth of the Department. Please contact the Department chairperson or any Women Studies faculty member if you are interested in serving on the Advisory Board.
Undergraduate Research or Teaching Assistantships
Well-qualified Women’s Studies majors or minors are eligible to apply for occasional positions as research or teaching assistants to Women’s Studies faculty members.
In the case of research assistance, a small stipend may be possible through a faculty member’s grant, or an Independent Study course might be worked out with the professor. If you have already taken a course with a professor whose ongoing research is of interest to you, you may be in a good position to apply for a research assistant position.
In the case of teaching, Prof. Chris Bobel frequently offers a supervised teaching assistantship for students who have successfully completed her Women and Society course. If appropriate, this work may count as a field placement for credit for a student who is also taking the Internship course in the senior year.
Both options are excellent experience for students potentially interested in graduate school to prepare for careers in university teaching.
In the words of recent graduate Natalia Cooper, who was a teaching assistant in Women and Society in the Spring of 2005, “It can be difficult to work within the shifting boundaries present for the undergrad teaching assistant but the work I have done this semester has given me a realistic glimpse into the ‘behind-the-scenes’ work of college teaching.”
Please consult the Department chairperson for more details.
Work-Study Position in Women’s Studies Office
If you are a minor or major with a work-study award, check to see whether there is an opening in our Department office. You may have the opportunity to put together our program newsletter or course offerings Handbook, as well as helping out with the day-to-day running of the Department.