Winter Term Internships

Winter Term internships involve significant, high-level exposure to the fundamental work of an organization, with ties to a student’s academic and/or professional interests.

• A Winter Term internship for credit is unpaid. 
  
   
• The minimum internship is 4 weeks long and 25 hours per week for a total of 100 hours minimum.  If you have an exceptionally different circumstance, please make your case clear in your application for credit.
  
   
•  The internship should begin on Jan. 4 and end on Feb. 1. Please contact Amy Gibans McGlashan for questions about experiences outside these dates. 
  
   
• Sophomores through Super Seniors only are eligible to participate in Winter Term internships.  All students must enroll in a Winter Term course their first winter term at Middlebury. This includes both September and February matriculates (Sophomore Febs).
  
   
• Only students who have been enrolled for Fall 2023 are eligible to earn credit for Winter Term 2024. 
  
   
• A student may not repeat the same Winter Term internship.
  
   
• A relative may not function as an internship supervisor.

We expect most 2024 Winter Term internships to be conducted in-person. However, remote or hybrid internships are also eligible for credit. 

Students participating in a remote internship may only live on campus if they have been (or will be) enrolled and living in campus housing for both Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters. Students studying in programs abroad (or away) for either or both semesters who want to do a remote internship must do the remote internship from home or another location - they are not eligible for on-campus housing. Students studying away or taking the Spring semester off must vacate their room at the end of the Fall term. 

Students returning from an abroad or away semester who are taking an on-campus Winter Term class or a local in-person Winter Term internship for credit are eligible for campus housing.  Please contact Amy Gibans McGlashan or AJ Place for extreme exceptions.   

One way to find a J-term internship is to visit Handshake. Do a keyword search for “Winter Term.” (CCI will start posting Winter Term internships in Handshake in September.) Remember, an internship you see listed there is not automatically approved for credit. Securing the internship for J-term is the first step; getting credit for it is a separate process. Please read this entire web site and FAQs to understand the process.

In addition, students are encouraged to find or create their own internships. For CCI’s top tips, go to Find an Internship.

If you’d like help in finding an internship, schedule an appointment with a career advisor in your interest area by visiting See an Advisor. You can also get started by dropping into Quick Questions to see a Peer Career Advisor (PCA). 

In the Resources section of Handshake, you will find a list of internships that Middlebury students have done in previous Winter Terms and summers. The list is sorted by industry field (Arts, Business, Communications, etc). Read and explore to get some ideas of what you might want to do and reach out to the student listed if you want more information!

View a listing of previous internships here.

You must have your resume approved by a Peer Career Advisor before submitting your application for Winter Term internship credit. Ideally, you would have your resume approved before even applying for an internship.  

Peer Career Advisors approve resumes during Quick Questions. See here for Quick Question hours and locations. Don’t wait until the last minute as it may take more than one visit to approve your resume.

The Academic Sponsor is a Middlebury faculty member who agrees to act as the academic connector between your internship experience and learning explored during the internship. The academic sponsor must agree that the internship provides a worthwhile opportunity for the application of liberal arts learning. Their responsibilities will include working with the student to develop a plan tying the internship experience to the exploration of scholarly ideas, helping the student identify learning objectives and at least three scholarly sources to list in the application for credit, signing the Academic Sponsor form to indicate willingness to guide the student during the internship, and determining whether the post-internship academic work deserves credit. 

The three scholarly sources that you list in your application for credit will provide relevant academic content for your experience and should be incorporated into your final work (typically a research paper or journal) that you present to your Academic Sponsor. See samples here.

Yes. In many cases, your faculty advisor will serve as your academic sponsor. An academic sponsor need not have deep expertise in your internship area as long as they feel that they can work with you to develop a plan for, and evaluate, academic work that will tie your internship to a scholarly investigation of a related topic, issue or idea. The Curriculum Committee recommends, however, that students undertaking an internship unrelated to their major (e.g. a music major participating in a law internship), should attempt to find a faculty member from a background more tied to their topic of interest to serve as their academic sponsor. 

Students are required to earn Middlebury credits during at least two winter terms and can choose to earn credit for four Winter Terms.

No more than two Winter Term credits may be earned through a credit-bearing internship. 

For additional information about non-standard credits (such as AP credits and internships), please click here .

If your internship has not yet been approved by CCI before or during WT registration: All students proposing a Winter Term internship MUST register for a Winter Term class during Winter Term registration, to ensure you are enrolled in a class in case the internship proposal is denied and/or to secure your option for credit. This also secures your option to stay in College housing.  

When you receive an approval email from CCI: The Registrar’s office will automatically switch your registration in Banner from the course to your internship.

If you are choosing to do an internship NOT for credit: Students who elect not to participate in winter term MUST still participate in winter term registration by enrolling in the No-Credit, “Opt-Out” option. Students registering for this No-Credit option will not receive academic credit during winter term and will not be eligible to remain on campus. 

Thanks to generous alumni donors, CCI is able to offer two types of grants for 2024 Winter Term internships. To be eligible to apply for either grant, you EITHER need to have an internship related to Conflict Transformation (definition: Working with an organization that creates adaptive responses and constructive change to go beyond resolution and address root causes of human conflict to advance peace, justice, and healthy relationships and communities), AND/OR you receive financial aid from the College or from a scholarship program affiliated with Middlebury (Posse, College Match, Quest Bridge, Wily, etc). Typically, students who are living on-campus are not eligible for grants, but exceptions may be made.   

Eligible students may apply for either or both grants but may only receive ONE grant per Winter Term. To apply for these grants, you will answer questions in the Winter Term Application for Credit/Funding in Handshake. The grants will support travel, housing, food, and/or loss of wages from an on-campus job, etc. Funding will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, and only students who submit a complete Winter Term application for credit will be considered. Since funds are limited, please apply early and be prepared in the Application for Winter Term credit to answer questions about why you are applying for funds and to provide a detailed budget.   

Conflict Transformation Grant: Through the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation, Middlebury will offer up to six $1500 grants (awarded competitively on a first-come, first-served basis) to support students with Winter Term internships related to conflict transformation (Definition: working with an organization that creates adaptive responses and constructive change to go beyond resolution and address root causes of human conflict to advance peace, justice, and health relationships and communities). All students are eligible as long as you have expenses related to your internship. To apply for this funding, describe in approximately 250 words why your internship is related to conflict transformation. In addition, provide details on your internship expenses for the month. 

Internship Funding Grants: These $1500 grants are available only to students receiving Financial Aid from the College or from a Middlebury affiliated Scholarship program. To apply for this funding, you will answer questions in the Winter Term Application for Winter Term Credit/Funding. Please describe in 1-3 paragraphs why you are applying for funding, explain your budget needs, and provide actual expenses in detail (e.g. commuting costs: 1 month subway pass at $XX/month, AirBnB rental for 4 weeks=$XXX, etc).  Please note: Airfare/travel costs from Middlebury to your home and back may not be included.

The Center for Community Engagement also offers funding for internships involving international or cross-cultural community service, advocacy or activism. See Cross Cultural Community Engagement Grants.  

No, Winter Term internships for academic credit are unpaid experiences, although it is allowable for students to receive a stipend from their internship provider to help pay for their living or transportation expenses. 

An affiliation agreement is a written contract detailing the legal obligations of both the school and the experiential learning site to facilitate experiential learning for students. Middlebury College does not enter into such agreements, meaning you would not be able to accept an internship that requires an affiliation agreement for participation. 

Yes. Depending on where the internship will take place, you may need to take additional actions.

If you plan to do the internship in the U.S. and you are in F-1 student status*, you will need Curricular Practical Training (CPT) employment authorization. For CPT, the winter term internship must earn academic credit and must be related to your major field of study. If CCI notifies you that your internship has been approved by the Curriculum Committee, you will need to apply to International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) for CPT authorization. Please note that even on-campus internships require a students in F-1 status to adhere to requirements above. See here for more information about CPT eligibility, and contact ISSS (isss@middlebury.edu) if you have additional questions. 

*For international students not in F-1 status, contact ISSS to explore if you are eligible to pursue an internship in the U.S.

For internships outside the U.S., you will need to determine with ISSS whether you will require a particular visa status or employment authorization to pursue the opportunity in your home country or in another non-U.S. location. Also please see next question for having your travel approved by Middlebury’s Global Operations Committee.    

International travel for an internship must be reviewed by the Global Operations Committee and may be approved on a case by case basis.  

Requests for credit approval for internships involving travel to countries with State Department Travel Advisories of Levels 2, 3, or 4 will necessitate additional paperwork and may be denied by the College based on a risk assessment analysis. Students who are already located in their home country and want to engage in an internship for credit, either in-person or remote, must also be reviewed by the Global Operations Committee.

For all international internships: Check the State Department Travel Advisory page. Travel to or location in a Level 2 advisory country where Middlebury has a school abroad does not require additional review. Travel to or location in countries with Level 2 where Middlebury does not have a school abroad, as well as countries with Level 3 and 4 travel advisories (including your home country), require submission of an International Activity Approval Form (scroll to bottom of page and click on the blue button) to the Global Operations Committee. Complete the form as early as possible (and preferably before you submit your Winter Term internship application for credit) so the Committee has time to review your proposal.

International internships require more planning time in planning, particularly in terms of investigating any visa issues associated with your internship. Please note that students must comply with international travel registration, waivers, and insurance coverage as described below. 

International registration, health, and insurance coverage process: If you are approved for internship credit and your internship experience is in a country other than the US, you must complete steps to register your travel plans online (this step is in addition to having been reviewed by the Global Operations Committee, if needed) and ensure that you have medevac, repatriation, and health insurance. If you do not have such insurance coverage, you must enroll (there is a charge of approximately $75 per month). If you are an international student with an internship experience in your home country, you do not have to purchase the insurance but you still need to register your travel plans. Specific instructions will be included in your internship credit award notification. Students should consult the CDC, Parton Health Center and/or their health care provider on recommended vaccinations. 

The student will complete an application for credit by creating an Experience in Handshake and attaching required paperwork to the Experience.  

Deadline: Approvals are done on a rolling basis so complete your application asap, but no later than Dec. 1. Please note that the College is closed during Thanksgiving week, so we strongly recommend that you complete all the steps below before Thanksgiving break to ensure that your application will be approved in time. 

Follow these steps: 

1) Complete any required surveys in Handshake to make sure you can access the Winter Term Application for Credit. 

2) Have your resume approved by a CCI Peer Career Advisor at Quick Questions. A CCI-approved resume is a requirement for applying for internship credit and is STRONGLY ENCOURAGED when applying for internships. Resume approval may require more than one visit.

 

3) Secure an internship. See go/findinternships for tips, make an appointment with a CCI advisor, visit a PCA for help, or see related FAQ.



3) Find a faculty member who will agree to serve as your academic sponsor. See related FAQs. 



4) Write your Personal Statement (use essay prompt here) and include 3 scholarly sources (see related FAQ or samples here).

5) Read the Internship Agreement Form in entirety as it contains important conditions and terms related to your participation in an internship. You will be asked in the Winter Term Application for Credit if you have read and agree to all the terms of this agreement.  Do not enter your initials into the relevant question in the application until you have read this agreement. 

6) Create an Experience in Handshake - this is your application for credit. (Find it at go/Handshake>Career Center>Experiences>Create an Experience.) Select Winter Term Application for Credit/Funding and Winter Term 2024 and answer all questions marked with an asterisk. Immediately after submitting, attach your personal statement and your CCI-approved resume. Several funding grants are available on a first-come, first-served basis for students on financial aid or those with internships related to conflict transformation. 

After you submit the Application for Winter Term Credit in Handshake:

• Your internship supervisor will need to complete an Intern Sponsor Agreement Form - a link to this form will automatically be sent to the on-site internship supervisor you have designated in your Handshake Experience. This form will be due 3 days after you submit your Experience.  
• Your Faculty Academic Sponsor will complete an Academic Sponsor Approval form - a link to this form will automatically be sent to the faculty member after your internship supervisor has submitted their form and will be due 3 days after receipt.  
• CCI will inform you whether the Curriculum Committee has approved your application for credit by sending you an email. The process usually takes 2-3 weeks. You should alert your internship supervisor and academic sponsor that they will be receiving emails from Handshake (they should check their spam and clutter folders) and should complete the forms asap.