Santa Clara University

Internships

While in London, Santa Clara works with the Foundation for International Education (FIE) as our partner program. FIE coordinates the internship component of the program as follows:

FIE recognizes the importance of experiential learning in developing students' skills and knowledge, and our internship programmes offer the opportunity for US students to gain first-hand experience of the world of work in an international context.

Each year FIE successfully places hundreds of visiting international students in a wide range of London-based organizations that reflect each individual intern's interests, career aspirations, and academic field of study.

In the first part of the program, the emphasis will be on in-class learning. The second half of the semester concentrates on internships and the internship coursework, with classes meeting on a reduced schedule. Academic credit will be given for the internship class as well, and may be applicable for major credit as well.

Types of Organizations & Internships
The work environments available to interns range from large multinational corporations to small and medium sized enterprises, and include voluntary, political, public sector and creative organizations. They cater for almost every conceivable major.

Our partners cover a wide spectrum of professional fields in large and small, public and private organizations. We maintain a close relationship with every organization to ensure that interns are given mentoring, suitable job tasks and the right level of responsibility. Our preparation also means that both student and site provider are aware of each other's expectations.

We make certain that the right organization is found for every student by carefully matching (through an ongoing dialogue with the student) an intern's personal profile to the most suitable position in the best type of host organization.

Areas in which we work include:
Accountacy
Arts & Humanities
Communications
Design
Economics
Education
Fashion
Film
Finance
Human Resources
Information Technology (IT)
International Business
Journalism
Law
Music & Radio
Politics
Psychology
Politics
Service Learning
Television

NEW! For more information about each of these types of placements, click here to open the pdf file of Internship Area Information. You can also read the FIE Internship Handbook here.

Preparation for the British work place
Comprehensive pre-arrival information materials and an orientation on arrival ensure that students are fully prepared for their placements. In addition, our British Life & Culture core course is an excellent way of enabling visiting interns to place the internship into the economic and cultural context of modern Britain.

Continuous support
During the internship, our team maintains regular contact with every student to monitor progress and address any issues.

An international insight
London work placements are accessible to US students due to the English language, yet UK and European work cultures and organizational practices are sufficiently different from the US to make the work experience genuinely cross-cultural.

These are academic internships and are rarely paid. You will receive at minimum elective credit for your internship experience. If you wish to seek major credit for the internship experience, this must be arranged with the relevant department chair at Santa Clara.