Internships & fieldwork
Our department has a long history of experiential learning that dates back to the 1960s. Students need opportunities to engage with community, work with peers, learn from mentors, apply their learning, make mistakes, and gather successes outside of the classroom in the environments they’ll be contributing to throughout their careers.
Overview
Gaining practical experience is one of the most important aspects of your student journey: Doing an internship or fieldwork lets you apply in the field the knowledge and skills acquired during your studies.
All our students have the opportunity to experience fieldwork, which are targeted short-term projects with one of our community partners, and/or a full internship where they take on a more a long-term position (200–560 hours) within an organization.
Undergraduate students
Browse the courses below, then contact Undergraduate Program Coordinator to verify that you have met the course credit criteria.
Graduate students
Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to verify that you have met the relevant criteria.
Organizations
Interested in hosting student placements? Reach out to our Internship and Fieldwork Coordinator.
Our internship courses
Undergraduate
This 6-credit internship of 360 hours that is spread across the fall and winter terms.
It provides students with a supervised opportunity to apply learning from the BA Specialization in Human Relations to work with youth and families in a range of settings such as child welfare, schools, non profit organizations, residential care, or outreach. The specific objectives are to teach about planning, education, and intervention in human service work, to promote self reflection as a critical component of ethical practice, and to provide a basis for further career planning and/or graduate work in youth and family practice.
Prerequisites/corequisite:
- The following courses must be completed previously: AHSC 331; AHSC 322 or AHSC 355.
- The following course must be completed previously or concurrently: AHSC 465.
- Students must have completed 60 credits prior to enrolling.
- Permission from the department is required.
This 6-credit internship of 240 hours over the course of the fall term.
This course provides students with an opportunity to design, implement, and evaluate programs; to facilitate groups in a variety of settings; and to establish working relationships with field personnel. In consultation with their supervisors, students select a site related to their learning interests. Students learn to develop and manage their own project and to self assess their work. The course includes fieldwork, seminars, and team meetings.
Prerequisites:
- The following courses must be completed previously: AHSC 361, AHSC 371.
- Students must have completed 60 credits prior to enrolling.
- Permission from the Department is required.
This 6-credit internship of 240 hours that is spread across the fall and winter terms.
This course provides students with an opportunity to design, implement, and evaluate small group leadership in several settings, and to negotiate working relationships with site personnel. Students will be solely responsible for facilitating several tasks or learning groups in community, work, or educational settings. The sites will be selected according to students’ learning interests and in consultation with the course instructor. The course includes supervisory team meetings and internship seminar sessions.
Prerequisite:
- The following course must be completed previously: AHSC 331.
This 12-credit internship of 560 hours that is completed in one term, either the winter or summer term.
The Internship is a supervised educational experience within a professional agency related to the student’s area of interest or specialization in Therapeutic Recreation. Because this experience can constitute a significant part of the student’s academic preparation it is considered a vital pre- professional experience and an important facet of the student’s overall education.
Prerequisites:
- The following courses must be completed previously: 60 university credits including AHSC 321, AHSC 338, AHSC 361, AHSC 448.
- Permission from the Department is required.
Our fieldwork courses
The course provides students with an opportunity to apply skills acquired through their coursework in Human Relations by carrying out a project with a client organization in the community. The course includes classroom sessions, tutorials, coordination and planning with a team of peers, and a field-based group project.
Prerequisites:
- The following course must be completed previously: AHSC 331.
- The following courses must be completed previously or concurrently: AHSC 400 or AHSC 425 or AHSC 445.
- Students must complete 60 university credits prior to enrolling.
- Permission of the Department is required for students enrolled in the Certificate in Family Life Education.
Funding opportunities
With the permission and approval of their course supervisors, students are encouraged to seek out paid internships that fulfil the learning objectives of their program. We are, however, aware that paid internships are limited in some of the fields of interests of our students and that a lack of renumeration can be a significant barrier to the participation of some of our students.
To aid with this challenge we have partnered with the Beat The Odds Internship program which aims to help students in equity-deserving groups deepen their engagement with their studies and renew their commitment to their academic program. Selected students will receive a paid internship in a relevant organization (either full- or part-time). Participants will also have access to additional support like professional mentorship, workshops, and a peer network.
