In addition to a graduate assistantship, students in the master’s program are required to complete a 10 hour/week practicum during one semester. The practicum experience is a program requirement that affords students the opportunity to work in another office or area of student affairs during their course of study. Practicum experiences provide master’s students the opportunity to engage in a credit-bearing internship in a student or academic affairs office where they may integrate theory, research, and skills gained from courses, workshops, and seminars into their own conceptual framework of student affairs work while working closely with student affairs professionals.
The nature of the practicum experience is to offer exposure to the operation of a functional area of student affairs and the interrelationship of associated functional areas, and to provide students the opportunity to generate, develop and refine skills in program development, counseling, administration, research and other aspects of student affairs work.
During the spring semester of the first year in the IU HESA program all students will have the opportunity to work with one of the many student and academic affairs offices at Indiana University or in and around Bloomington.
Along with the practicum experience, students participate in a small seminar that meets seven times throughout the semester. This seminar experience facilitates the connection between theory and practice and allows students the opportunity to learn about other practicum sites via the participants in their seminar.