UTRGV Career Center

The Student Experience Internship program’s mission is to create meaningful internship experiences on campus for undergraduate students. As an approved SEI host, you receive many benefits of the program.

• Opportunity for your department to offer an enriching internship experience that allows for students to develop and grow professionally within their field of study or career interest.
• Increased productivity. A quality intern can make real contributions to productivity, helping full-time staff and faculty avoid becoming overburdened by side projects, and freeing them up to accomplish more creative tasks or tasks that require high-level expertise.
• Student brings fresh perspectives to old problems. Allowing them to bring in different skills and attributes to projects, assignments, and your department.
• Foster leadership skills in current staff. As staff members mentor and supervise interns, they will gain valuable leadership skills.
• Increased visibility of department on campus
• Upon approval of serving as an SEI host, your positions are funded 100% by the Career Center.

Departments interested in hosting an SEI must submit their request through the online request form when the request period opens. The SEI request period usually takes place early Summer (June) to hire interns for the next fiscal year (Fall through Spring).

Not always. SEI requests are submitted and approved on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you are interested in becoming an SEI hosting site, you must consider the following.

1. Does your SEI position meet approval as an internship? It is recommended that you review the SEI Supervisor Handbook to ensure that your position meets qualifications of the program.
2. Have you reviewed and acknowledged SEI program requirements for faculty/staff as well as students? SEI is not considered a program to hire a student for free. There are expectations and requirements for all parties to commit to.
3. Have you submitted your SEI request correctly (with an attached internship job description) and in a timely manner?

Should you need guidance, please contact the Career Center Internship Program Manager.

Your SEI approved position is granted to hire a student intern for one year starting Fall through Spring semester. Extensions may be granted for the Summer; however, this is not guaranteed and will be dependent on available funding.

Upon completion of the internship experience, you may choose to hire the student for continued employment; however, compensation will be funded by the department and not under SEI.

Students can participate in the program once. Hiring a new intern is recommended.

Please be advised that the Student Experience Internship (SEI) program is not to be treated similarly to a student employment program where a student is continuously employed under your department. We strongly encourage our hosting departments to continue submitting requests each summer to provide new experiences for new students to participate. We strongly believe that all students should be given opportunities like these to build up on skills and prepare for the professional workforce.

Departments can continue submitting requests to the SEI program. Please be mindful that departments will be evaluated, and the Career Center is being deliberate in ensuring that we are equitably distributing opportunities throughout the university community. It is important for departments to review SEI request submission deadlines.

Yes, funding for SEI positions is limited. Should you have a quality internship to offer undergraduate students, it is recommended to submit your SEI request early when the request period opens.

Once allocations have been issued, funds may be exhausted. If additional funding becomes available, positions that were submitted during the previous request period will be considered.

Note: Email communication will be sent to faculty/staff notifying them of the SEI request period opening to departments.

The Internship Program Manager will inform the supervisor contact via email of their approval or denial of their position request.

Your position request may be denied due to the following reasons.

• There was insufficient information in the SEI request form (e.g. contact details, missing internship job description, lack of information including job responsibilities or learning outcomes, etc).
• Your request did not meet internship approval standards or was submitted as a general student employment opportunity (e.g. Office Assistant, Student Mentor, Tutor) which will not be considered SEI.
• The department or hiring supervisor has ongoing track record of not following SEI program protocols and processes.

SEI requests may expire for the following reason(s).

• Department was unable to identify and hire an eligible student for their position(s) on time, or before the deadline for an ePAF to be created.

Work study funds are not used under the SEI program. The Career Center funds all SEI positions 100% under direct wage.

Note: Students who receive work study funds through financial aid AND are eligible for the SEI program can apply, however, work study funds will not be applied in the cost center of the student’s ePAF.

SEI approved positions are posted by the Career Center. It is important that requests are submitted with appropriate information and an internship job description for proper review and timely posting process.

SEI approved postings will be listed on the Handshake platform and visible to eligible UTRGV students.

We strongly encourage hosting departments to promote the SEI program and their approved positions to qualified undergraduate students. This can be done in various ways including direct email to eligible students, social media, or other formats best suited for the department.

It is important to first review Student Eligibility Guidelines before offering a position. When verifying student eligibility, it is recommended the supervisor/support staff review the student’s current transcript, advising course history, and/or DegreeWorks (available on Assist). Please consider the GPA (must be 3.00 or higher), enrollment hours for term (12 credit hours required for participation), and overall earned hours (cannot exceed 100 maximum earned hours).

No. The hosting department and/or supervisor will be responsible for creating the ePAF OR identifying an admin/support staff to create an ePAF for their approved position. This process will follow soon after the supervisor has verified that the student meets eligibility for the SEI program.

Note the following details.

• The supervisor submitting a request for an SEI should be in constant communication with admin/support staff following approval of their position. This is to directly inform the admin/support staff that a position will be created for the department.
• The supervisor will be responsible in ensuring the admin/support staff receive all required information for ePAF including position number (requested by positioncontrol@utrgv.edu), funding account code, encumbrance amount, and student information.
• Supervisor must follow all Student Employment policies and processes in place for any student position on campus.

Yes. As the supervisor to the student, you are responsible in keeping track of student work hours as well as informing them to complete and submit timecards on time. If you are unfamiliar with this process, it is recommended you contact Student Employment, studentemployment@utrgv.edu, for review of student employment policies.