Summer internships and research work can be an important part of your education. 

Such experiences complement what you are learning in the classroom, providing you with important skills, perspective, and insight to apply to your subsequent work at Brown and beyond. IAPA does not award course credit for internships but recognizes the importance of experiential learning by offering students the optional professional track. 

Requirements

Students pursuing a professional track must complete

• all IAPA concentration requirements,

• a 2-6 month professional experience (in cases where students do multiple internships, each internship must be at least one month in duration),

• a substantive reflective essay to be approved by the student’s concentration advisor. 

Each internship experience must be full-time lasting at least one month. Internships that take place between the end of the fall and the start of the spring semesters cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.

How to Apply for a CPT

For the professional-track Curricular Practical Training (CPT) approval process, you should submit a request in the OISSS Gateway portal (brown.edu/go/oisssgateway). You will be asked to provide the name and email address of your concentration advisor, as your advisor will receive a link allowing them to review and approve/deny the request. If approved, OISSS will review and issue the CPT work authorization in the form of a new I-20.  Following your internship, the reflective essay should also be uploaded to the OISSS Gateway portal. As with the CPT request, you will need to enter your concentration advisor's name and email, so that they can review and approve the essay.

The Reflective Essay

Students upload a copy of the reflective essay when submitting a declaration revision in ASK.

The reflective essays for each experience should address the following: 

• Which courses were put to use in your professional work? Which topics, in particular, were important?
• In retrospect, which courses should you have taken before your summer experience or internship? Which topics from these courses would have helped you over the summer if you had been more familiar with them?
• Are there topics you should have been familiar with in preparation for your summer experience or internship, but are not taught at Brown? What are these topics?
• What did you learn from the experience that probably could not have been picked up from coursework?
• Is the sort of work you did over the summer something you would like to continue doing once you graduate? Explain.
• Would you recommend your summer experience to other Brown students? Explain.