Hiring a New School Intern

Find an intern by posting your position on Handshake, The New School's online job and internship portal. 

To access Handshake, a user account is required.

• If you have received an invitation from a school or colleague, you can create an account by clicking the link provided in the invitation email.  
• If you haven't received an invitation, you can register at https://app.joinhandshake.com/employer_registrations/new. 
• Please consult Create an Employer User Account, Join a Company, and Connect with Schools.

If you experience any problems logging in to the new system, contact New School Career Services by emailing us at [email protected].

Authorization for a New School student to participate in an internship requires your completion of the employer's section of the Experience Learning Agreement (ELA), which is reviewed by New School staff to determine student eligibility. An employer's failure to approve their portion of the student's ELA will result in the student not being registered for the internship, and they will be unable to receive credit. If an internship is approved, staff will email your student intern a letter of eligibility to forward to you that states that the student will receive credit from The New School for the internship. Students may not begin internships until they, their employer, and a representative of The New School have approved the ELA. Students submit their ELAs on Handshake.

All internships approved by The New School must:

• Involve useful work related to students' field of study and support their professional goals.
• Be performed under the direct supervision of a professional. The number of interns permitted per organization will depend on the organization's ability to offer direct supervision by a professional.
• Ensure that no conflict of interest exists within interns' supervisory structure.
• Involve continuous mentorship throughout the semester, as it is crucial to the success of the internship program.
• Include a midpoint check to ensure that learning objectives will be achieved by the end of the internship.
• Include a student evaluation at the end of the internship.
• Meet requirements stipulated on the experience learning agreement, such as those outlining work hours, dates, and credits.
• Provide an adequate and safe working station or environment.
• Treat interns as paraprofessionals in the workplace.
• Ensure that interns work on-site for at least 90 percent of their documented hours. If an internship is to be on-site, the organization agrees to observe the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), along with any federal, state or local restrictions. Otherwise, please refer to Guidelines for Remote Internships, below.
  
  
  Guidelines for Remote Internships
  
  
• The internship site and the student must agree on detailed project descriptions, including expectations, tasks and responsibilities, and anticipated completion deadlines.
• The internship site must use some type of online project management tools (e.g., Google Drive) that are shared and allow supervisors to monitor the work to be completed.
• Project work must be saved to cloud-based storage designated by the internship site or supervisor, and not on personal computers.
• Internship Sites must create a system to track hours worked (e.g., time sheets in Excel shared in Google Drive).
• The internship must include regular virtual communications (weekly email reports or video) enabling the student to ask questions and/or discuss challenges or problems. Meetings should include project planning, progress review, and feedback.

For more information about starting an internship program, creating a job description, and hiring an intern, please see Hiring a New School Intern on our website.

For more information on recruitment strategies, please see Employer Recruitment Strategies on our website.

If you have additional questions, please email [email protected].

Yes; in addition to opening an account on Handshake, supervisors must complete the supervisor portion of the Experience Learning Agreement (ELA), which will be sent to them through Handshake; meet individually with their intern at the midpoint of the internship to discuss their progress; and complete a supervisor evaluation form at the conclusion of the internship.

Experience will send you the Experience Learning Agreement (ELA) form once the student has completed his or her portion of the agreement. If you need any assistance during the approval process, please contact [email protected].

Learning objectives are goals and objectives that students hope to achieve through internships. The New School strongly recommends that you work with your student to set useful, reasonable internship learning objectives. The New School formalizes this process by requiring that learning objectives be outlined on the experience learning agreement and that the student's progress on these objectives be documented by a midterm evaluation and a final evaluation.

Use the following guidelines to establish learning objectives with the student.

Professional Skills

Students acquire professional skills by participating in a professional work environment.

• They gain an understanding of office hierarchies and learn to define effective and efficient work practices.
• They develop mentor relationships and a professional network.
• They accomplish tasks or participate in projects that showcase their skills and build résumés and portfolios.
• They observe professional etiquette, including dress codes and proper forms of communication.

Industry Awareness

Interns learn how an industry works and how various companies and consumer markets differ.

Relating Internships to Classroom Experience and Career Goals

Internships should relate to coursework. For example, an intern might apply information learned in a design course to create a tech pack for a fashion company, gain experience using Adobe InDesign or Photoshop by designing a publication, or be exposed to photography studio practices as preparation for establishing a business.

Communication Skills

During the internship, students should:

• Exercise written and verbal communication skills
• Become comfortable talking to clients and co-workers
• Become confident expressing ideas
• Practice listening to and accepting both criticism and positive feedback

The New School's Experience department digitally provides a letter of eligibility to each student who is registered in our program. If you are working with a New School intern, ask them to contact us directly at [email protected].

Yes; a zero-credit internship is considered official by employers. With The New School's approval, a student can elect a zero-credit internship option in order to document registration for an internship without paying full tuition for credits. The zero-credit internship registration process is the same as that for registering an internship for a higher credit amount and is sufficient to guarantee an internship's official recognition by the university.

Students often register an internship for zero credit for the following reasons:

• They are already carrying the maximum number of credits for the semester and wish to register for an internship without incurring additional tuition charges.
• They are interning during the summer and do not wish to pay tuition for internship credit.

Students must pay tuition for one- and two-credit internships. The cost sometimes deters highly qualified students from accepting internships. If you cannot pay an hourly wage for a New School intern, consider offering another form of compensation, such as a stipend or travel reimbursement. Note: International students (F-1 or J-1 visas) must be approved for Curricular Practical Training (CPT) to be eligible for any off-campus employment. This means that they must have a fully approved experience learning agreement (ELA) before starting their internship.

Students attending The New School on an F-1 student visa must receive Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization to participate in any off-campus opportunity. Students must complete an Experience Learning Agreement (ELA) in order for Experience to document CPT.

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

Students may not intern for more than 40 hours per week. Any hours exceeding that number in a single week will not be counted for program requirements, nor will those additional hours be eligible for use at a later date in the semester. Students may begin documenting hours one week before the beginning of the semester, provided that they have been approved to register in the Internship Program.

A student cannot work more hours than the number specified on the Experience Learning Agreement. If you have questions about internship hours or need more interns (i.e., you have more than 15 hours per week of work), contact [email protected] for assistance.

Parsons School of Design and College of Performing Arts

In order to maintain a balance between coursework and the internship experience, students cannot work more than 15 hours per week during the fall or spring semester without the approval of their academic advisor. Students can work up to full-time during the summer semester.

Students must work a minimum of 60 hours total to receive credit for a zero- or one-credit internship and a minimum of 120 hours to receive credit for a two-credit internship. Employers will be asked on the final evaluation to verify that the student has worked the agreed-upon number of hours for the semester.

A student cannot work more hours than the number specified on the Experience Learning Agreement. If you have questions about internship hours or need more interns (i.e., you have more than 15 hours per week of work), contact [email protected] for assistance.

School of Media Studies

Students registered for 3 non-internship credits can undertake an internship for up to 40 hours per week; students registered for 6 non-internship credits can undertake an internship for up to 30 hours per week; and students registered for 9 non-internship credits can undertake an internship for up to 20 hours per week.

It is important for you, as the intern's supervisor, to review the intern's objectives to ensure that they are realistic and achievable. If they are not, you should work with the intern to develop appropriate learning objectives. Over the course of the internship, you should meet regularly with the intern to review their progress toward the their learning goals and make adjustments to the goals if necessary.

In addition to mentoring your student throughout the internship, you are expected to hold a midterm evaluation to assess their experience and performance. The midterm evaluation is required of all employers hiring New School interns and should be completed halfway through the internship. Midterm evaluations should take place in person and involve

• Engaging in open dialogue with your student about how they think the internship is progressing
• Assessing your intern's work
• Reviewing your intern's learning objectives and progress toward achieving them
• Establishing corrective measures to enable the intern to accomplish their goals

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

Depending on the section, Lang students receive either a letter (A-F) or a P/F grade. The internship grade is based on a combination of the integral program components. These include seminar attendance, assigned coursework, supervisory evaluation, and hours on-site.

Student evaluations are intended to provide qualitative feedback on the student's

• General level of preparedness
• Ability to achieve goals set out in the learning objectives
• Contribution to the work environment
• Relevant skill set
• Overall professionalism
• Attendance
• Areas that need development and specific suggestions for improvement

You will be contacted by The New School by email to complete the evaluation. Evaluations will be available to the student once complete. Failure to complete the evaluation could result in the student's not receiving credit for the internship.

Parsons School of Design, College of Performing Arts, and Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment

The internship evaluation you complete for the student at the end of the semester will determine the student's grade. All internships are graded on a Pass/Unsatisfactory basis. Student evaluations are intended to provide qualitative feedback on the student's

• General level of preparedness
• Ability to achieve goals set out in the learning objectives
• Contribution to the work environment
• Relevant skill set
• Overall professionalism
• Attendance
• Areas that need development and specific suggestions for improvement

You will be contacted by The New School by email to complete the evaluation. Evaluations will be available to the student once complete. Failure to complete the evaluation could result in the student not receiving credit for the internship.

Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and School of Media Studies

Students' grades are based on a final essay in addition to the supervisor evaluation.

To complete the evaluation:

1. You receive an email with the student's name and the link to the evaluation.
2. Click on the link included in the email and complete the fields. 
3. After you've filled out the evaluation, click Submit.

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

If there is a change of supervisor, please let us know immediately at [email protected]. The new supervisor may need to create a Handshake account; additional actions will be decided upon review.

Experience encourages interns to remain at their internships until the agreed-upon end date. There are instances, typically due to academic workload, in which students seek to leave their internship early. When this occurs, we encourage interns and their internship supervisors to meet and discuss the issue in an effort to seek resolution. We are happy to engage with students and their supervisors at any point in this process.

If a performance issue arises, we advise that you meet with the intern in a timely way to discuss the concerns. We encourage employers to develop a written action plan with their interns to address the performance issues and follow up with the interns to review progress. We are happy to engage in this process at any point with your intern to assist you in resolving the issue.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact [email protected]. We would be happy to help you resolve any problems you might have.

The New School prohibits employers of interns from discriminating on the basis of age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, religious practices, mental or physical disability, national or ethnic origin, citizenship, or veteran or marital status.

It is the responsibility of the student to report any discomfort experienced at the internship site to their internship site supervisor and the New School administration.

By offering a New School student an internship opportunity, you agree to the terms, conditions, and limitations outlined in the above paragraphs.