This semester is my chapter’s first semester participating in the internship credit program through Her Campus Headquarters. With that being said, it has been an interesting journey. But through the help of my fellow chapter interns and Emily from HQ, we have been able to come up with a solid plan for our chapter.
Hopefully this will come in handy for other members or chapters that are also participating in this program.
The MSU chapter is set up so that staff writers and chapter board members alike need to achieve eight incentive points throughout the semester to remain an active member. Typically, this looks like attending four general meetings (one per month) and writing four articles (one per month), but points can also be earned through attending events, workshops, paying dues, social media takeovers, going to other chapter’s events, HCHQ events, and more.
The eight point threshold is the chapter minimum, but members are encouraged to participate in additional group activities and remain active within our chapter.
Now looking into the HCHQ internship program, each chapter leader is going to run theirs differently based on what their chapter needs, but we have such a strong e-board already that we had to find other options for members to be involved in the chapter.
First, it is required that our interns write eight articles for the whole semester, ideally two per month.
Secondly, they have to either attend the monthly general meeting, or set up a time to meet with me (the Campus Correspondent and Chapter President) to talk about what’s happening within the chapter and their involvement. This is for every month.
Thirdly, there is also a list in our shared drive that contains approximately 20 projects/tasks and the interns are expected to do four of them throughout the semester. Once again, this adds up to about one per month.
Some of these tasks include hosting study tables, doing a campus trendsetter program, attending extra events, collaborating with other chapters, organizations, members, and more. They also have the option to reach out with other ideas they have that they think should be counted.
In addition, they also need to sign all of the HCHQ internship documents, track their hours and tasks (of course), and be in a group chat with myself and the other interns to stay in communication and up to date. We also had an intern meeting a few weeks ago to talk about ideas and expectations.
Personally, this is my first time participating in the program and offering it for my chapter. It’s a work in progress, but I really want to be able to offer this as an opportunity for members to be able to hit as many – or as little – hours they need to get the credit while also doing enough within our chapter to have it properly counted as being an internship.
Hope this helps others that were, or are, in a similar situation as myself. HCXO.