FOST3896: Virtual International Internship

This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the virtual international work environment by critically examining a professional, remote experience abroad through an intercultural lens. A key element to this course is to deepen students’ knowledge of their internship placement country’s professional norms and cultural context in comparison to other students’ internship placement countries, as well as the United States, and understand how COVID-19 has impacted these environments. Students’ research and writing on COVID-19 globally will include ethical analysis on how the national approach has impacted society, if they agree with this approach or not, and why. We will interrogate how this knowledge will influence their behavior in their society and the world. Students will also enhance their understanding of their chosen field using a global mindset.The course is designed to guide students in the internship experience and create a foundation for a successful professional career as well as working to understand and articulate career skill outcomes. In addition to gaining a cross-cultural comparative view on work, the topics and assignments will deepen students’ insights about themselves, professional expectations, and being successful in the virtual workplace. Students are expected to make a valuable contribution to the virtual internship placement through the completion of projects and tasks guided by their internship supervisor in the placement country. This will require students to employ intercultural communication skills in a professional, virtual setting while critically examining their own worldview.Three Credit CourseStudents who take the Virtual International Internship a second time will complete the three-credit version of this course and will be expected to complete the same number of hours at their internship sites as those who are taking the four-credit course. The academic work for the three-credit course will correspond to the second semester of internship participation in order to increase students’ remote, professional experience, strengthen their knowledge of their chosen industry, as well as enhance their global mind-set. The Global Perspectives liberal education requirement is not fulfilled by taking the three-credit version of this course.

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