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The Community Internship (IDS 4942) credit option is offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer whereby students can work at pre-approved internship sites or they can seek out their own internship sites and then register for variable amounts of credit depending on their desired work schedule. Students are responsible for securing their own internship. There are no additional requirements for IDS 4942 other than working at the internship (e.g., no class meeting, no assignments, etc.). Internships can be paid or unpaid.

Once students secure an internship opportunity (either on their own or via pre-approved internship list), they should contact the USF community internship instructor to get approval for that internship experience. If not already on the pre-approved list, all internship sites need to be vetted and approved by a faculty member in the USF Department of Psychology.

On-site supervision will be provided at the internship by a professional with at least a Bachelor’s degree and two years of experience in their field. On-site supervisors will need to confirm the students' position at the beginning of the semester and again confirm the students' acceptable work at the end of the semester. For Summer and Fall 2023, the instructor is Dr. Vicky Phares.

Credits are as follows in Fall and Spring: 1 credit (for 3 or more hours/week at the internship = 45 total hours), 2 credits (for 4 or more hours/week at the internship = 60 total hours), or 3 credits (for 8 hours/week or more at the internship = 120 total hours), or 4 credits (for 11 hours/week or more at the internship = 165 total hours). The total hours are more important than the hours/week.

Because Summer Session C is shorter than the other semesters, more hours per week are suggested: 1 credit (for 4 ½ or more hours/week at the internship = 45 total hours), 2 credits (for 6 or more hours/week at the internship = 60 total hours), or 3 credits (for 12 hours/week or more at the internship = 120 total hours), or 4 credits (for 16 ½ hours/week or more at the internship = 165 total hours). ). The total hours are more important than the hours/week.

The Community Internship (IDS 4942) is offered on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading basis.

Internships can include experiences in any topic that is relevant to psychology, including but not limited to: Mental health, substance abuse, behavioral health, legal issues, forensic psychology, jury selection, community problems, therapeutic communities, industrial organizational psychology, business psychology, human resources, animal behavior, applied behavior analysis, test development, the assessment process, applications of basic research, psychosocial oncology, health sciences, child development, social processes, aging studies, and the elderly.

Please note that no more than 3 hours of PSY 4913 Directed Study, PSY 4970 Honors Thesis, CLP 4941 Community Practicum, or IDS 4942 Community Internship (combined) can count toward the major. Additional credits will count toward general elective credit towards the 120 hours required for the degree. 3 hours of CLP 4941 or IDS 4942 can count toward the minor in Psychology. IDS 4942 can be repeated for a maximum of 8 credit hours.

Note that internship credits do not count against the calculation of excess credits.

How to Enroll

(Spring, Summer, and Fall)
Course is by instructor approval only. Please send the following information to Dr. Vicky Phares

• Your name and U number
• Your e-mail address
• The semester in which you wish to enroll in the course
• The number of credit hours in which you will be enrolling
• The name of the internship site and name of your supervisor at the internship site

The Community Practicum in Mental Health course (CLP 4941) is a service learning course where undergraduate students will be assigned to volunteer in a pre-approved community agency for a total of 100 hours across the semester (about 8 hours/week in the Fall and Spring; about 10 hours/week in the Summer) and will attend a one-hour in-person lecture/discussion. Recorded substitute lectures will be provided for those who cannot attend in-person. Course material will cover ethics, confidentiality, issues related to mental health, and working in community agencies. Reflective writing assignments will be included in the course. Readings will be posted to Canvas and there is no required book.

Community Practicum in Mental Health is taught in the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. CLP 4941 is qualified as a High Impact Practice course through the Enhanced General Education system.

Community agency options include mental health facilities, substance use disorder treatment facilities, social service agencies serving impoverished youth and elderly, residential facilities for children in foster care, and prevention programs for youth at risk for mental health problems. On-site supervision will be provided for at least one hour/week of the 8 hour/week commitment. Many agencies require background checks (approximately $70); some require a background check as well as drug screening (approximately $125); some require malpractice insurance ($35). Students are often asked to pay for these services out-of-pocket, but in most cases, they can be reimbursed from a foundation account arranged by generous donors.

Once students are approved for the class and given a permit to enroll, they will be asked to rank their preferences for the agency where they would like to gain this experience. Most of the background checks and paperwork will need to be completed long before the start of the semester.

We hope to have all of the background checks and paperwork done well before the beginning of classes, so that students can gain the full experience of the internship during the semester.

Priority will be given to graduating seniors.

Internships can be paid or unpaid. If a student is already volunteering or working at a community agency and wants to join the course and receive credit for new hours at that site (8 hours/week in Fall and Spring; 10 hours/week in Summer) plus course attendance and course work during the semester then please email Dr. Vicky Phares.

Please note that no more than 3 hours of PSY 4913 Directed Study, PSY 4970 Honors Thesis, CLP 4941 Community Practicum, or IDS 4942 Community Internship (combined) can count toward the major. Additional credits will count toward general elective credit towards the 120 hours required for the degree. 3 hours of CLP 4941 or IDS 4942 can count toward the minor in Psychology. CLP 4941 can be repeated for a maximum of 9 credit hours.

Note that internship credits do not count against the calculation of excess credits.

How to Enroll

Course is by instructor approval only. For the Spring, Summer, and Fall , please e-mail Dr. Vicky Phares with the following information:

• Your name
• Your e-mail address
• Your U number
• When you plan to graduate
• The semester in which you wish to enroll in the course
• Also, please have a professor, adviser, graduate student, or other professional (such as a supervisor from work, even if not psychology-related) confirm the following statement via e-mail to Dr. Vicky Phares: "I support _______________’s request to be assigned to an internship at a community social service agency."

Students typically participate as a research assistant in a faculty member’s lab and in order to register, students need permission from the faculty member to enroll.

* This course will not be offered in Spring 2025

This course is one of the electives for the Psychology B.A., with Advanced Research Experience in Psychology Concentration. It also meets the University’s FKL Capstone requirement for students who entered USF prior to Fall 2018.

Did you know that neuroscientist Joseph Ledoux first became interested in brains while working in a butcher shop? Or that physicist Richard Feynman (perhaps you’ve heard of him from The Big Bang Theory) loved solving real-world problems and invented a way to cut string beans efficiently when he worked in a hotel kitchen? Noted developmental psychologist Fran Horowitz got some of her theoretical ideas working as an elementary school teacher, one of the few jobs acceptable for women at the time. You will learn about these and other research journeys in Discovering Research in Psychology, a course designed to help you on your own potential research journey.

In this course we will explore the science of psychology. The course is designed to stimulate your interest in becoming an active participant in the research process and provide basic research skills. It also aims to familiarize you with some of the kinds of research that faculty and students in the Psychology Department conduct and how and why you might become involved. A third objective of the course is to help you decide whether to apply to the department’s Honors Program and ultimately apply to graduate school for a research-related degree. Students who successfully complete this class will have a greater chance of being admitted to the department’s Honors Program.

The course will focus on three broad themes: the people, problems, and processes of research. You will learn what kinds of individuals are involved in research, the skills and characteristics they bring to the research endeavor, their professional training, and how they became involved in research. With respect to problems, you will learn about the range of topics often encountered in psychological research. You will also consider the personal and scholarly challenges researchers face in addressing their questions of interest. Finally, you will consider how to identify a good problem, frame a research question, and design a strategy to try to answer the question. In doing so, you will see how systematic inquiry occurs in psychology and be exposed to some methods used for conducting psychological research and how they yield knowledge. As part of the course you will also learn how to analyze research information critically.

Participants will hear presentations by some of the Psychology Department’s most outstanding faculty and student researchers and may take field trips to research sites. To prepare for these classes, you will read journal articles by the researchers and review the researchers’ curriculum vitae (academic resumes). You will also read scholars’ accounts of how they became involved in research. You will reflect on, discuss, and write about these presentations and readings. In addition, you will gain experience in some parts of the research process (e.g., dealing with ethical considerations). You will interview researchers in Psychology and related disciplines. Finally, you will explore options for becoming involved in research yourself.

Requirements are likely to include active participation in the class, short weekly papers about presentations and readings, interviews with researchers, research brain teasers, research ethics training, library resources projects, a curriculum vitae and personal statement project, a paper discussing yourself as a possible researcher, and a final exam.

Selection Criteria

• Introduction to Psychological Science and Research Methods with grades of B or better,
• major GPA (including all attempts) of 3.2 or better,
• overall GPA of 3.0 or better,
• interest in learning about the research process,
• and consent of instructor.

Exceptions may be made for students entering USF in fall 2024 from another college or university.

Recommended Criteria

• strong writing and analytic skills,
• an interest in becoming involved in research in psychology,
• intent to graduate no earlier than December 2025 to leave open the possibility of getting involved in research or participating in the 2025 Psychology Department Honors Program

How to Enroll

First, complete the online permission to register form found on the Psychology Department website. Next, please send Dr. Jennifer Bosson an e-mail explaining briefly why you think this would be a useful class and how you meet the selection criteria.