Senior Assignment: Criminal Justice Supervised Internship
Internships are for Criminal Justice Majors only.
All majors must complete an internship as part of the culminating experience. We do not offer internships to non-majors at this time.
Your criminal justice (CJ) studies faculty members are committed to experiential learning. All students must successfully complete an internship and a senior assignment project with a grade of C or above. Students will work in a criminal justice agency during their last year of undergraduate work. However, arranging the internship can take some time, so students are strongly encouraged to begin discussion of their internship with criminal justice studies faculty members one full year before the intended semester. Email Dr. Petrocelli (mpetroc@siue.edu) to begin this discussion. Please note: It is a University requirement that all students who do a face-to-face internship as part of their course curriculum have (at a minimum) catastrophic health insurance (proof will be requested). If a student cannot secure health insurance, please contact Dr. Petrocelli (mpetroc@siue.edu) to discuss options for completing the course.
Students complete internships at agencies that have formal agreements with SIUE for undertaking these internships. We have partnerships with over 185 agencies. We have internship opportunities at the federal, state, county and local levels, in the public and private sectors, in law enforcement, probation, secure facilities, treatment, community corrections and courts. There is something for nearly every interest area, so consider your own interests and develop a "top three" list of interest areas before getting started. A partial list is posted on the bulletin board outside the office at 1211 Peck Hall for review. If a student is interested in an agency that does not appear on the list, Dr. Petrocelli can work toward obtaining an Internship Agreement with that agency.
Students should never contact any agency about an internship without the clear support of the Supervised Internship faculty. For that reason, the first step in securing an internship must be a discussion with the faculty member who will be the instructor for the section in which you intend to enroll. Failure to follow this requirement may result in your inability to use that site for your internship experience.
Students are not placed into agencies by SIUE faculty members. They must apply to and be accepted for an internship by the agency of choice. However, no student should contact any agency until given approval to begin the application process. Students first get approval from the SIUE faculty, then apply to the agency, and, if accepted, only then can be considered ready to enroll in the internship course. Different agencies have different application processes and require various amounts of time from weeks to months for an application to be accepted. Students are not eligible until they have completed CJ 302 with a grade of C or better. We prefer that students have taken CJ 303 before the internship, or that it is taken concurrently. Please coordinate carefully, and be sure to communicate effectively with your CJ faculty members.
Here is the process: After you and the instructor of record have agreed upon a potential placement site, you will make the call/contact with that agency to determine if they have a place for you. Most agencies request that you come in for an interview. You may want to take a resume with you. If you have not written one before, SIUE’s Career Development Center can assist you. Most agencies will require you to undergo a criminal background check. Many agencies will disqualify you with a misdemeanor conviction, so you need to be honest both with SIUE faculty and the agencies up front.
For example, if Morgan plans to graduate in May 2020 (after the spring 2020 semester), then she should begin to think about her top three areas for internships during the spring 2019 semester. By the middle of the spring 2019 semester, she should have narrowed down her interests and initiated contact with Dr. Petrocelli, who will advise her--based on her top three selections--about the timing of applications for her selected internship. She will then follow the process above.
Students may apply to only one place at a time to allow for the greatest number of students to secure placements in any giving semester. The internship course is offered every semester, and is typically offered online during the summer semesters.
You must attend a mandatory meeting concerning CJ 488 in the semester PRIOR to the one in which you wish to enroll. For example, for the spring semester internship, Morgan would attend a mandatory meeting in late fall semester in which she would receive her syllabus, the course packet/resources, and understand the expectations of the internship as the senior assignment.
In addition to the 140 hours of work that each student completes at their assigned agency, students must also complete assignments designed to assess their skills in the four assessment areas for the Criminal Justice major. These four assessment areas are: (1) critical thinking; (2) reviewing scholarly Criminal Justice literature; (3) analyzing diversity issues within the Criminal Justice system and workplace; and (4) oral communication. These four areas represent the assessment goals of SIUE’s Criminal Justice Studies program, and are emphasized throughout the entire program curriculum. Please note that critical thinking is a skill that resonates through all assignments for the four assessment areas. Field notes for the 140 hours are also required.
At the end of the semester, each student will present a poster that communicates the analysis of the internship experiences. All full time Criminal Justice Studies faculty members contribute to the grade for each student's presentation. These presentations may either be recorded presentations using ITS technology, or in person at the Goshen Lounge at the MUC on the Friday before final exams begin. All students are encouraged to view the online presentations or attend the in-person presentations.
