Internships
The Department of Political Science strongly encourages students to enroll in an internship sometime during the course of their studies at Northern Illinois University. The internship allows students to earn course credit while gaining valuable professional experience as an intern and is open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students of above average academic standing. A wide variety of internship opportunities are available every year, including positions with:
- Congressional and state legislative offices
- Local, state, and federal government offices
- State's Attorney and Public Defender offices
- Political campaigns for national, state, and local offices
- Nonprofit organizations
- Public interest law firms
- Interest groups
Participating in an internship gives students a special opportunity to:
- apply classroom knowledge to a professional work environment
- gain valuable political experience that will look great on a resume
- sample different career options in a specific professional area of interest
- make valuable connections that could lead to a permanent position
Internship opportunities may be available to match your academic and career interests:
- Campaigns and Elections
- Congressional Offices
- Local Government Agencies and Organizations
- Family and Social Issues
- Legal Issues & Public Law
- Disaster Relief and World Hunger
- Environmental Protection
- Global Issues
- Government Agencies
- Human Rights/Civil Liberties
- Lobbying
- Race, Class, Gender and Women's Issues
- Refugee and Immigrant Issues
The department works in conjunction with our Internship Coordinator and NIU Career Services in order to assist students in the process of obtaining internships. Students work with the coordinator in order to receive political science credit for internship experience and/or official recognition on the university transcript.
Students looking for political science internship advice and career opportunities should contact Professor Brendon Swedlow at bswedlow@niu.edu or 815.753.1011. Students are also encouraged to regularly check the department’s E-Announcements.
To download an internship contract for academic credit, click here.