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Internships in Politics: The CUNY Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Robert S. Hirschfield  and
Norman M. Adler
Robert S. Hirschfield
Affiliation:
CUNY, Hunter College
Norman M. Adler
Affiliation:
CUNY, Hunter College
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Extract

In December of 1949, a student of public service internships wrote: “All of the professions have sought reality and human understanding, at least in some degree, through the use of internships.” At that time, however, according to a survey conducted by Thomas and Doris Reed, only one American college offered what we would now regard as a political internship program.

Today this situation has changed dramatically, and the place of political internships in undergraduate (as well as some graduate) curricula is established in scores of colleges. The pressure for so-called “life experience” courses, the move toward independent study and off-campus programs, and the renewed interest of political and administrative leaders have all contributed to the burgeoning of intern programs. In fact, a recent meeting at Lexington, Kentucky saw internship directors from across the country gathering to confer on such matters as the philosophy of internship, financing, organization, relationships among politicians, academics and students, and related matters.

Type
A Brief Look at Internships
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Winter 1973 , pp. 13 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1973

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References

1 Butzbach, Arthur, “Internships for the Neophyte Administrator,” American School Board Journal, (December, 1949), p. 13.Google Scholar

2 Thomas, H. and Reed, Doris D., Evaluation of Citizenship Training and Incentive in American Colleges and Universities (New York: Citizenship Clearing House, 1950)Google Scholar in Hennessey, Bernard C., Political Internships: Theory, Practice, Evaluation (University Park: Penn State Studies, 1970), p. 11.Google Scholar

3 Sponsored by the Department of Personnel of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Fall, 1971).

4 Hedlund, Ronald D., Participant Observation in Studying Congress: The Congressional Fellowship Program (Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association, 1970), (mimeographed).Google Scholar

5 Sponsored by the American Political Science Association and the Ford Foundation, the conference was held in April, 1965 at Las Croabas, Puerto Rico. The seven papers were: Everett Cataldo, “An Appraisal of the Congressional Fellowship Program”; Bernard C. Hennessey, “The Nature and Scope of College Political Internship Programs: Survey and Commentary”: Harold D. Lasswell, “The Professional and Public Service Potential of Internship Programs”; James A. Robinson, “Participant Observation, Political Internships and Research”; Donald G. Herzberg, “The Care and Feeding of Interns”; John G. Stewart, “The Intern Crisis: Some Thoughts on the Overextension of a Good Thing,” and Sidney Wise “The Administration of an Internship Program.”

6 “A Survey of Political Internship Programs,” unpublished memorandum of the American Political Science Association, undated.

7 Hennessey, op. cit.; Robinson, James A., “Participant Observation, Political Internships, and Research,” in Robinson, James A. (ed.). Political Science Annual: Volume II, 1969–1970 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970)Google Scholar, (originally written for the Las Croabas Conference); Bruyn, Severyn T., The Human Perspective in Sociology: the Methodology of Participant Observation (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966).Google Scholar

8 Hennessey, op. cit., p. 9.

9 Wise, op. cit.

10 Ibid., p. 14.

11 For a discussion of verstehen see Hennessey, Chapter 8.

12 Wise, op. cit.

13 Stewart, op. cit., p. 12.

14 Wise, op. cit., p. 3.

15 Hennessey, op. cit., p. 20.

16 Ibid., p. 9.

17 Hedlund, op. cit., p. 58.

18 See McCall, George J. and Simmons, J. L., Issues in Participant Observation: A Text and Reader (Reading Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1969).Google Scholar

19 Stewart, op. cit., p. 15.

20 Quoted in Maher, Thomas M., Interns for South Dakota, unpublished, 1971.Google Scholar