Internships and Service Learning Opportunities

Internships, field experiences and volunteering are great ways to practice the knowledge you have gained from your studies while developing real world experience. They can help you make professional contacts, develop skills, and learn more about your career field.

Credit for Internships

While FIS does not have a formal internship course/program or designated faculty mentors for internships in place at this time, we do encourage students to pursue French or Italian-related internships and volunteer experiences on their own. Please contact the Humanities Academic Services center at has-center@uw.edu to learn about current opportunities.

Finding an Internship or Volunteer Position

Start your search by visiting the UW Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center website and the UW Career Center website. Both have extensive listings for internship and volunteer positions.

If you have a particular field in mind (i.e. film), conduct research on organizations in that field and check their direct web sites. If the organization does not post internships or advertise an internship program, you might try proposing your own internship. This requires more research and preparation on your part, but could be worth the effort. Be prepared to provide the organization with an outline your interests, your related experience, and an explanation of how you could be of value to them.

Students interested in receiving academic credit for internships should consider signing up for General Studies 350 “Independent fieldwork.” While credit for Gen Studies 350 can not be applied to your French or Italian major, it does count toward the 180 total credits required for a Bachelor's Degree from the UW. Please see the CELE Center web site for more information about this course.

Below is a list of local organizations that have indicated in the past that they have internships and volunteer opportunities available for French & Italian students:

French-American Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest
Seattle, WA
Contact: info@faccpnw.org

Possible Administrative Assistant internship in the FACCPNW office. Assist with fundraising events, and internal communications. Requires fluency in French and English.

Northwest Film Forum
Seattle, WA
volunteer@nwfilmforum.org; internships email vivian@nwfilmforum.org with résumé and cover letter; (206) 329-2629
Contact: Youth Programs Director Elizabeth Shepherd [liz@nwfilmforum.org].

Possible internships include outreach to French, Italian and African film directors and distributors to participate in Northwest Film Forum Children's Film Festival Seattle, researching films that have participated in similar film festivals in France, Italy, and Burkina Faso, and providing translations of festival guidelines and entry forms.

University of Washington Libraries 
Seattle, WA
Contact: Romance Languages & Literatures Librarian, Deb Raftus at [draftus@uw.edu].

Possible Libraries internships include, but are not limited to:

  • Outreach project for study abroad students. This includes providing information on how to do research in (French or Italian city), drafting web pages/materials for student packets, and assisting with pre-trip library research session planning.
  • An analysis of UW Libraries holdings in French and Italian films (feature films and documentaries), with an eye toward trying to fill in gaps in our collection. Assessing French/Italian departmental needs, tracking down availability as well as identifying titles, and possibly helping with a grant request.

Other Suggestions:

Share