General Guidelines

Applicants are responsible for locating a qualified placement site and securing an agency's agreement to participate. A helpful way to begin thinking about your internship is to consider a volunteer project that interests you. Once you have decided on the kind of work you would like to do, contact an appropriate agency to see if they would sponsor your project. Identify a specific person at the agency to be responsible for supervising your work during the internship. This supervisor must write a letter of agreement to be submitted along with your application and a letter of completion at the conclusion of your internship.

If you're having trouble finding a qualified placement or if you have an idea, but aren't sure how to make it into a summer project, give us a call at 214-768-4255 or email us. The Maguire Ethics Center is happy to work with you to find an agency or a project that matches your interests.  

The committee selects the interns based on the following criteria:

• a well articulated proposal with a clear project goal and vision;
• agreement between sponsoring agency and the student's project description;
• need for and ethical merit of the proposed project;
• justice issues it will address or ethical lessons it will help the student to learn; and
• the role the internship will play in the student's vocational future and maturity.

Answers to Frequently Asked Question

• For those chosen as interns, the salary is $10.00 an hour for undergraduate students, and $12.00 an hour for graduate students, for a total of 200 hours for the entire summer.
• The hours are worked during the summer on a schedule mutually agreed to by you and the sponsoring agency. The work must be done between June and August.
• Weekly status reports will be required during your internship.
• Students must be returning to SMU in the fall.
• Recipients will be paid in two equal installments: early June and early September.
• The internship can be done outside of Dallas.
• The internship should be a new project. The internship is not meant to further compensate students for work for which they are already receiving payment.
• Interns may work another job while doing the internship, as long as it does not  interfere with their ability to work the designated hours for the internship.
• If your project is to take place in another country, your passport must not expire between now and six months after your return to the U.S.