RPTM Internship: 300 Hour Guidelines
1. Students can use from one to six experiences to complete 300 hours
2. Each experience used must be a minimum of 50 ON-SITE agency hours. A variety of experiences can be used to reach the 50 hour minimum provided that they occurred at the same agency and were supervised by an agency professional.
3. Each experience must be under the direct supervision of a full-time supervisory-level employee of the agency.
4. Prior work and volunteer hours can be used provided that the experience(s) occurred following the student’s matriculation at Penn State or any other university/college.
5. Work and volunteer experiences used to complete course requirements may be acceptable
(-e.g. 236, 356) provided that only ON-SITE agency hours are used to meet the minimum 50 hour On-Site requirement.
6. Work and/or volunteer experiences should be within the parameters of the career options within the field of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management under advisement of the academic advisor. Students should consult with their academic advisor (prior to participating in the experience) to verify that their work and/or volunteer experiences meet the intent of the 300 hour requirement.
7. If the student pursuing a career option in Therapeutic Recreation, 200 of the 300 hours must involve working with individuals with disabling conditions at the discretion of the academic advisor.
Additionally, Outdoor School is approved for 75 hours for each week a student participates. Lifeguarding is approved for a maximum of 50 hours.
Experiences that do not count toward 300 hours include:
Working retail in a sport-related store (-e.g. Dicks, Appalachian Outdoors)
Working in restaurants, unless the student time was largely spent coordinating and implementing special events.
Working on-line or from home for an agency