Faculty & Staff Resources

You are a vital part of the internship process here at DU!  We need to leverage your help and influence with students to engage in internship planning from admissions to program completion.  Refer them to the Student Page, (the academic approval process is detailed on this website), to the Internship Workshops and to the opportunities active on Handshake so they can get informed and started right away.  You can invite Internship Managers to speak in your classes and with your teams or student groups.  You can also visit an internship workshop yourself to boost your awareness of the process. 

You are encouraged to help Internship Managers and Career Services staff to recruit and develop internship opportunities in the community at large.  Please refer host site organizations to post positions on our Handshake site.  Feel free to loop in the Internship Managers to follow up.  

Faculty may teach internship courses.  Department Chairs review and approve internship position descriptions for credit worthiness by working with the Internship Manager for their respective programs, via Handshake.

Faculty, Staff, and Coaches may also host a DU intern!  If the work is deemed academically relevant and credit worthy you can recruit our students to help you accomplish your goals. DU Internship Managers can coach you through the HR policies and approval process any time.    

Steps for Developing an Internship within DU:

1. Develop a position description for each internship opportunity, or use what you have for a Student Worker role already.  The position responsibilities should be at a level expected of student required to hold an Associate / Bachelor / Graduate degree at the point of hire.  Design your internship to be successful including a mix of in-person and remote work, if possible.  Sample internship position descriptions are available from the Internship Managers.  At a minimum, build a position description by completing the fields in our form found here:

• Internship Position Description Builder

2. Submit the position description to the Internship Manager for your student program target.  The Internship Manager will work with Program Chair(s) if needed to give initial approval of the role.  A general guideline is that internship roles must contain 70% content related to the program major and no more than 30% general administrative tasks.  Sport Management students can only coach to athletic skills 30% of the time. 
3. You can post the internship position description post to Davenport’s Handshake website and it will be available for students to apply to via a direct e mail to you, the supervisor of the intern.  Please vet and respond to students in a timely manner, allowing them to move on to other opportunities if you will not be interviewing or selecting them. 
4. The Intern Supervisor contacts and interviews applicants directly.  Please notify Internship Manager that a student has been selected as soon as possible, and refer student to the approval process on our website: https://my.davenport.edu/internships  The Handshake system will guide you to begin background check if needed, depending on if you have a paid student work / federal work study position for them or not, and if they have any other positions at DU or not. 
5. After the Internship Manager has been notified, and the student has submitted an Experience Request on Handshake, you will receive an E Mail from Handshake with the students name in the subject line.  Please take time ASAP to click in and read / work through the information and approval screens so the remaining approval steps and registration steps can occur.  Remember, our students are dealing with financial aid, loan disbursements, athletic and international / work authorization eligibility.  The link will expire in 3 business days.
6. The automated approval process is where your department will enter into an agreement with the university stating the expectations of the internship relationship, i.e. keeping the student in relevant work, adequately supervise them, willingness to complete mid and final semester evaluations and be available for 1 – 2 conversations and a possible “site visit”, likely via phone or video, with Faculty per semester. 
7. The student may start the internship after course registration is complete, or may simply be continuing work if attaching credit to an existing position. 

8. The internship posting will expire upon the deadline date.  If this is an ongoing need, site supervisors / hiring managers need to reactive the posting in Handshake well ahead of each semester so the position can be promoted to students for the coming term.  

Please feel free to connect with an Internship Manager for help walking through the process of hosting internally.  

SCENARIO 1: 

Posting for a Paid Student Employment Position:  New or Refill (can be Student Employment or Federal Work Study funded), combined with For Credit Internship

1. Student Employee Supervisor requests to refill a current student employment position due to a vacancy using link:  https://davenport.csod.com/ATS/JobRequisitionRequest/RequisitionRequests.aspx?tab_page_id=-20010017
2. Human Resources (HR) department posts the position with Special Instructions to Applicants:  This position may be eligible for a credit bearing internship, if directly related to your degree program.  Please also apply for the Internship Course on time, if you are interested in receiving credit along with this employment opportunity. https://my.davenport.edu/internships
3. DU students apply online at https://davenport.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx?site=1&c=davenport.
4. If an applicant or the top candidate would like to see if this paid position can be a credit-bearing internship as well, the student works through the automated internship process with an Internship Manager (IM) on Handshake.
5. The IM will assess the position and work with the hiring supervisor and academics to determine if the current job description along with any additional details is sufficient for an internship.  The three (3) degrees of separation provided by academics should be taken into consideration, if it applies:
   • Serve in a different department or work unit.
   • Report to a different supervisor.
   • Have substantially different responsibilities than their current employment and are closely connected to their field of study.   
6. The student will:
   • Attend an Internship Workshop.
   • Complete the Post Workshop Survey.
   • Report the internship by requesting an Experience in Handshake.
     • The IM reviews the submission and works with the student, Academic Advisor, Program Chair, and Employer Supervisor for all approval steps for course registration.
7. The Supervisor will review and approve the Experience Request via email sent from Handshake, titled with the student's name, and also submits a recommendation for hire in EmpowerU. HR will create an offer letter and send it through the approvals process. Once the offer is accepted by the student HR will assign a Written Disclosure to the applicant's profile allowing HR to run the background check. Once the background check is complete and passed, the student’s status will be changed to “hired” and is assigned to onboarding to complete new hire paperwork.
8. HR follows the current process for collecting paperwork from the new student employee and provides the supervisor with a start date.
9. The HR team does not make decisions or have input regarding academic credit being awarded.
10. The HR team will post or re-activate existing student employment positions and will not accept requests for new paid positions. New positions can only be requested in March during the annual request process for the next academic year.

SCENARIO 2.

Existing Paid Student Employment Position (can be Student Employment or Federal Work Study funded), Combining Credit Internship with Current Work

1. If a DU student is currently working in a paid student employment position and contacts an Internship Manager requesting to use the current position as a paid internship, the following applies:

• The position cannot be counted as an internship if the individual has been in the role for longer than 6 months; this would not be considered a new experience. 
• The three (3) degrees of separation rule provided by academics must be taken into consideration to create a new experience. 
  • Separate from regular working hours.
  • Unpaid.
  • Under the supervision of an outside department and supervisor.
• If the student has not been in the position for longer than six (6) months the Internship Manager will consult with academics via the Handshake Experience Request, to determine if current (“new”) job description along with any additional details is sufficient for an internship. 
• The hours the student is currently working will be counted as internship hours, as well. 
  1. 1. #6 in SCENARIO 1 also applies. 

Scenario 3:  Unpaid Internships

1. Unpaid internship positions will only be posted on Handshake by the DU Department Supervisor or if necessary, the IM.
2. IM’s review these positions to determine if the job description and work with the hiring supervisor, department, and academics to determine if the internship job description detail is sufficient for a credit-bearing internship. (This is obtained via the KISSFLOW system, if requested). 
   1. Consideration must be given to the three (3) degrees of separation rule provided by academics (found in Scenario 2, Step 1.i) depending on which student was selected, and how long they have been employed at DU.
3. Positions are posted in Handshake as class-approved! Or class-possible! Ex. MGMT90 approved!
4. The DU Department Supervisor is responsible to review, vet, and interview candidates for the best fit, before extending an offer. 
   • Students who are not selected will be notified by the department supervisor in a timely manner to enable students to continue to search.
   • Scenario 1, Step #6 applies for the student. 
   • If the student does not have a current Student Employment or Federal Work Study (FWS) position at Davenport University:
     •  Department Supervisor or Internship Manager will submit a cover sheet to HR @ Student.Employment@davenport.edu, for the student that includes student name and email. Once this is received HR will create an account for the student through our background check vendor Verified Credentials. The student will then receive an email from the vendor to log in and input their information so a background check can be ordered.
     • If the student holds a current Student Employment or Federal Work Study position at DU, a background check has already been performed, and need not be repeated.
5. The HR team will receive the background results and email the cover sheet only back to the Department Supervisor.  This process may take 48 hours or up to 2 weeks for domestic or international students.
6. The HR team will scan the background results into ImageNow.
   • If the student is “approved”, the HR team member will add the approved start date and sign the cover sheet.  The Supervisor may then work with the student to determine an official start date on or after the date listed by HR. 
   • If the student is “not approved” based on the background results, the HR Team will email the cover sheet to the Supervisor with a note to call Deann Giles to discuss.  The results from the background check are confidential and details will be discussed on a need to know basis only.
7. If approved, the HR team will immediately email the student the following forms with instructions to complete and return to student.employment@davenport.edu within three (3) business days.
   • Confidentiality Agreement Acknowledgement
   • Anti-harassment Agreement Acknowledgement
   • Cash Management Policy Acknowledgement (if the position handles cash)
8. If the forms are not received in the HR office within three (3) business days, the HR team will email the student a reminder and copy the Internship Manager and Supervisor, if known.
   • If the forms are not received in the HR office within three (3) business days after the reminder, HR will email the Department Supervisor.  It will be the responsibility of the Supervisor to then contact the student and ensure the forms are returned to HR.
9. When the forms are returned to the HR office, they will be scanned into ImageNow.
10.  Notice of Separation is processed by the student intern’s Department Supervisor at the end date of any paid experience. 

IT Resources:

1. Print dollars will be allocated for credit-bearing internships to cover minimal printing that may be necessary.  Larger print jobs will be sent to the copy center or the supervisor may enter the printer code for the student on the departmental copier.
2. Shared drive access will not be given to unpaid interns, so sharing of needed files should take place through email, thumb drives or google docs. Permission will be removed at the end of the internship).
3. IT access must be set up prior to the student’s first day of work to ensure the most efficient workflow.  
4. Unpaid interns will use the student email address provided by IT since the internship aligns with a class.

Verification of Unpaid Internships:  Proof of unpaid internships may be provided by the Registrar's office (the students are paying for the class when they are doing their unpaid internship, so it is on their official transcript).  HR does not record an unpaid internship in Banner so any requests received for unpaid internship verification will be directed back to the student where they can provide a transcript.