Debra Gelinas's students want college credit for their internships. Actually, they need it. Companies often insist on credit so that interns might legally qualify as unpaid trainees. So eager students turn to Ms. Gelinas, director of experiential learning at Berklee College of Music, in Boston.
Berklee values practical experience and offers an internship-based course, but students, who intern for record companies and film scorers, balk at the tuition, especially over the summer. So Ms. Gelinas developed a certificate program, a sort of course-lite: fewer assignments, no credit, no fee.
"It was a way to create more opportunity for students," she says. Berklee started the program this semester, employers seemed satisfied, and 36 students enrolled. More than 50 have signed up for the summer already.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Would You Like Credit With That Internship? - Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author: Sara Lipka
