Toppel Internship Program

By Maura Gergerich, Peer Advisor 

Found an internship for the summer? Congratulations! Good for you for taking that next step in advancing your career! Now, what should you do to prepare?  Try out the Toppel Internship Program (TIP).

What is TIP?

TIP is a program that provides students with a 1-credit transcript notation on your University of Miami transcripts.

Why Participate?

It’s nice to get recognition for the things you do. With TIP you get official recognition from the university. Yes, you can highlight your experience on your resume, but having it shown on your transcript gives it more emphasis when employers see it.  It may also be required by certain employers that you do receive credit for your internship. This happens mostly with unpaid internships, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be required if you are getting paid. TIP also helps to make sure that you and your employer are on the same page when it comes to your goals. You don’t want to waste a summer sitting at a desk making copies if you were expecting to get hands on experience. TIP can make sure you get what you are expecting from your internship.

How to qualify

For the fall or spring semesters you have to be enrolled as a full time student. If you have a summer internship you do not need to be taking summer courses. Also in order to be a part of TIP you need to secure your internship and contact the Toppel Career Center to ensure that internship experience meets Toppel requirements (company, content of internship, hours, etc) via email at toppel-internships@miami.edu.  Once you have an internship, the first step of TIP is to attend a mandatory orientation. This will explain in detail what exactly you do for TIP and can help answer and questions you might have.

 

Throughout your internship you will fill out a midway evaluation and at the very end you attend a reflection session. This is basically to keep you on track with the goals you have set out for yourself. It helps to make sure that you are getting the skills or knowledge or experience that you hoped to gain.

You can visit http://www.sa.miami.edu/toppel/mainsite/Students/Internships/ToppelInternshipProgram.aspx for more information and http://www.sa.miami.edu/toppel/mainsite/Students/Internships/TIPOrientationDates.aspx to see what dates are still available to attend the orientation. Best of luck interning!