Internship Guidelines

PLEASE NOTE: THIS COURSE IS OPTIONAL

The Meteorological Internship course is NOT required for the certificate or degree. The BMP offers this course to help students who do NOT have a broadcasting background, but would like to obtain some broadcasting experience.

Internships can be a very valuable part of a student's training. If you would like a career in television weather and have never been on-air, then we would advise you to do an internship.

Internships are developed between you and the Chief Meteorologist at a local station. You will need to select the station where you would like to intern and contact their Chief Meteorologist. You will need to explain to him/her that you are enrolled in the Broadcast Meteorology Program at Mississippi State University and that you would like to intern at their station. The exact details (number of hours, job duties, etc) of the internship are between you and the Chief Meteorologist. However, to receive full credit (3 credit hours), a minimum of 100 hours must be completed during the internship.

There are several guidelines that you will need to follow for your internship

1) The station will need a letter stating you are receiving college credit for the internship. Email Joy Bailey at jbailey@distance.msstate.edu with the supervisor's name, station call letters and complete mailing address.

(2) The internship must follow the semester time schedule. For instance, an internship in the Fall must begin sometime in August and end around the last of November.

(3) To receive college credit (3 credit hours), you must enroll in our Meteorological Internship course (GR 4640) the semester in which you do the internship. The current tuition rate applies to this class. You must enroll in this course by the normal registration deadline! Registration deadlines are posted on this website under "Registration".

**Please note: there is no special application for the internship. Students may register themselves online while registering for other courses with other courses being taken that semester.

(4) At the end of the internship, you must write a paper detailing your experience in the internship.

Paper Requirements are as follows:

Include the number of hours/days a week you were involved.

· Include your job duties

· Give examples of what you learned

· Describe what impact the internship has had (or may have) on your career goals.

· Include a space on the last page of your paper for comments from the person in-charge of your internship (supervisor).

· The paper should be 1 1/2 to 2 pages.

· Your internship supervisor must comment and sign the paper.

· After the supervisor comments on the paper, he/she must email or fax the paper to our office:

Broadcast Meteorology Program
Attn: Dr. Doug Gillham
email: dmg3@msstate.edu
Fax: 662-325-9423

· The paper should be submitted at least one week before the last day of classes.

(4) Your grade in the course will be based on your paper (demonstrating what you have learned in the internship) and any comments by the person in-charge of the internship.

If you have any questions, please send an email to the program coordinator.