Internships
Internships are a vital part of your education and professional experience before you graduate with your bachelor's degree. Upon graduation you will be competing for jobs that require an internship or professional work experience and a simple bachelor's degree will not be enough!
Here are some tips for you to consider:
- Start looking for an internship early. Search online databases and find application and interview tips from professional organizations like the American Psychology Association and the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. UTRGV’s Career Center is a great place to start!
- Talk to UTRGV psychology professors who often hear about opportunities that you might not know about. Many keep bulletin boards or notebooks with current internship information for students. You will need a psychology professor's approval in advance if you wish to receive upper-division course credit.
- Visit UTRGV's Career Center. They can help you with job and internship placement. The center should also help you build your resume and application packet to give you a strong competitive chance at finding the best job in the psychology field.
- Join UTRGV's undergraduate or graduate psychology associations (PSI-CHI, etc) as well as state (Texas Psych Association) and national (American Psych Association) as they have an abundance of resources for students. The more involved you are, the more often you can hear about opportunities.
- Look into the various types of internships for which you may want to apply. Consider counseling at a women's shelter or Planned Parenthood, working with mental or emotional victims of post-traumatic stress disorder at the local VA hospital or local, state, and federal law enforcement agency.
- Get your resume ready, along with any psychology research studies you have participated in or prior volunteer work information, to prepare for interviews.
- Send in application packets to the companies for which you'd like to intern. Call the businesses if they haven't gotten back to you within a week of the internship closing date. Ask politely about the status of your application and if the committee needs anything else from you.
Undergraduate Psychology Internship Sites
- Tropical Texas Behavioral Health
- U.S. Department of State Health Services
- Child Protective Services
- Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Parole Division
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Justice Center (TYC)
- Communities in Schools of Hidalgo County
- Hidalgo County Community Supervision and Corrections Department
- Mujeres Unidas
- McAllen Police Department
- Hope Community Counseling Center
- New Beginnings