Scourfield McLauchlan, Incorporating Internships into Undergraduate Political Science Coursework, Page 8
Regarding their expectations for the internship, most students said that they hoped to
learn about campaigns first-hand, but they also confessed that they had no idea what to expect
from the experience and admitted that they were nervous about the prospect of working on a
political campaign.
Sample Comments from the Post-Internship Surveys
After reading through the Pre-Internship Surveys, I did not think it would be possible to see
much of a change in student attitudes toward politics, politicians, or political campaigns.
However, the comments were much less negative and cynical in the Post-Internship Surveys.
In answer to the question (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “not much” and 5 being “a
great deal”), “How much do you feel that having elections makes the government pay attention
to what people think when it decides what to do?” I found that double the number of students
answered “4” or “5” in the Post-Internship Survey. Twice as many students responded “yes” to
the question “Do you think you can make a difference in changing the direction of this country
by becoming involved in the 2004 presidential campaign?” after the internship experience.
In the short answer section, students explained that they learned that they could make a
difference in their communities by becoming involved in politics. Students felt that they learned
what “a campaign was all about, what it means to be involved and the importance of people to a
candidate’s success.”
Students also expressed a change attitude regarding whether the internship assignment
was a worthwhile endeavor. Despite their initial skepticism about this assignment, all students
recommended including this kind of assignment in future American Government classes. Their
Convention