Experiential Learning
Internships and Service Learning
NYU has a strong commitment to community involvement. Students have an extraordinary array of formal and informal hands-on learning opportunities which help connect theory to practice. The broad spectrum of experiential learning ranges from internships to service learning, and includes public service and community-based activities.
While each school offers its students somewhat different opportunities, all view the chance for engagement in the life of New York City and in specific professional areas as powerful ways to enrich students' education. Experiential learning opportunities expose students to new ways of understanding, engage them in relevant activities, and help them make connections between their coursework and their workplace, community centers, schools, hospitals; in other words, the world and life. Collectively, these experiences make NYU students (and thus the University) a major resource to the City.
Internships
Internships are course, program, and/or career related activities that fall on a continuum from participant-observation activities such as apprenticing on a film-shoot to fully engaged activities such as contributing copy to a journal. When credit-bearing, internships are generally department or course based and directly related to the field for which the student is preparing. Such internships, which are unpaid, tend to draw on knowledge and skills developed in courses.
Other internships are paid and are often associated with the Wasserman Center for Career Development. Such internships may be related to coursework and are almost always linked to students' career aspirations. This type of internship is attractive to many students, both for financial reasons and as a means of professional development. Register today for CareerNet at the Wasserman Center to gain instant access to amazing opportunities. Wasserman is located on the 2nd floor of 133 E. 13th Street (between 3rd & 4th Avenues) in the Palladium.
More internship options - if civic engagement is your interest - can be found listed with the Office of Government and Community Affairs. These exciting opportunities are not only in New York City, but also in Washington D.C., and Albany.
Service Learning
Service learning typically deepens the linkage between academic and experiential learning. This linkage can be accomplished in several ways. Public service learning often involves course-based internships as well as field experiences with pay. Community-based learning can also involve course-based internships, but noncredit service-learning initiatives can be developed as well. Explore these options with your advisor to make sure you are aware of all that is possible.
Additional places to explore experiential learning opportunities:
- CAS - Bulletin, see p. 352 and 339-340 and Metropolitan Studies
- Center for Multicultural Education and Programs (CMEP) and Wasserman Center for Career Development - Career Advantage Internship Program
- Gallatin - Individualized Projects, Community Learning, and Arts
- McGhee - Liberal Arts Program Internships, Senior Projects (Social Science and Humanities Interships) (PDF)
- Office of Civic Engagement - Volunteer Opportunities
- Steinhardt - Applied Psychology field experience, Culture & Communication, BFA Studio Art, and Educational Communication & Technology
- Stern - Bulletin for internships see p. 83, for community service see p. 94; for more on community service; and the Scholars Program
- Social Work - Field Learning
- TSOA - Internships and Career Development
- Wasserman Center for Career Development