HMSV Internship FAQ’s

• Can I count any of my class hours towards my internship hour total?
  • Students are now permitted to count the 50 hours accrued in HMSV 368 towards the 400-hour requirement of internship!
• Can I use my job as an internship placement?
  • Internship placements are typically unpaid, and a student may not turn their current paid job into an internship. However, if the job is in a different department/ program with a different role and supervisor, then that may be possible. The handbook states:
    • “A student may not use his/her job as his/her internship site. The internship experience is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to learn new knowledge, skills, and abilities and to expand his/her knowledge of existing agencies.”
• What about HMSV internships in a school setting?
  • Most internships based in schools are only appropriate for master’s level school counselor students. The only school situations that have been approved in the past for HMSV students have been in a case management role with paraprofessionals or special education teachers within the school, or with a HMSV agency running a program within a school setting. For the placement to meet the requirements, it needs to be a true human services experience, not education-focused.
• I work full-time, or have care-giving duties…how am I supposed to complete an internship?
  • Yes, the internship is demanding, and it can be a real challenge to meet the requirements for our many HMSV students who work full time and/or have other obligations and caretaking duties. Some of them have found sites that have evening and weekend service hours, and found other creative ways of getting their internship hours in. You might have luck with larger agencies that have a variety of services, sites that have 24/7 services like crisis hotlines, inpatient treatment or group homes. I’ve recently been asking supervisors to let me know if they do have evening or weekend hours when they tell me about internship opportunities, so you’ll see those posted in the Canvas organization as they’re sent to me.
  • There are a couple of ways to reduce the hour requirement a bit, so see if any of these apply to you:
    • If you’ve already completed an Associate’s degree in HMSV with an internship, OR 2+ years of full-time experience in the field of human services then you can apply for a 100-hour reduction of required hours. Here is the link to apply for a reduction, and you’ll find the details about what needs to be submitted along with that request: https://forms.odu.edu/view.php?id=457882
    • If you’ve already completed years of full-time experience in the field of human services then you can submit a portfolio to be considered for 468 credit. If that applies to you, then you may reach out to the Office of Prior Learning Assessment to see what your next steps are: https://ww1.odu.edu/academics/academic-records/evaluation-of-credit/prior-learning/what-is-prior-learning-assessment
  • Best of luck to you as you look for a site that will work best for you!
• I need to postpone my internship, what do I do?
  • It is no problem to postpone your internship to a later semester. You will need to resubmit an application, with the updated semester indicated, and go through the approval process again. You may upload the same Academic Verification Plan that was signed previously by your advisor
  • Also, if you have accepted an internship placement that will no longer be taking place, be sure to let the site supervisor know as well.
• Can I complete a virtual internship?
  • Online/ virtual internships will not be approved. Some sites may have a virtual component, depending on the needs of the site and supervisor; but it will still need to be a local internship, primarily in-person.