With spring break fast approaching, students are already starting to think about their courses for next fall.
At least a dozen institutions across the country are mandating that one of those courses be an internship at some point in the college career.
While some departments at Penn build work experience into curriculum requirements - such as the work component of the Urban Studies major and clinical rotations for nursing students - Dean of the College Dennis DeTurck said the College has no plans to impose a general mandate.
"That wouldn't be in the spirit of the place," he said, explaining that the requirements as they exist now are intended to guide the college experience as opposed to "legislate anything very specifically."
According to DeTurck, the idea of an internship requirement was considered along with similar proposals for community service and research mandates, but the school chose not to implement formal requirements, because students were participating in those types of activities already.
"It seems like having a requirement would be more of a symbolic gesture than a real substantive change," he said.
The Urban Studies department, however, does require that majors complete a fieldwork seminar in which students intern with community groups, public agencies and non-profit and private organizations in order to evaluate their experiences in the classroom.
The fieldwork seminar was instituted 37 years ago with the founding of the department "as a result of student demand," according to Urban Studies co-director Elaine Simon.
"Until about the mid 90s, the [requirement] was a hard sell - it was always being challenged," she said. "But I think now the times have changed and caught up with us."
Surveys of Urban Studies graduates show that the fieldwork seminar continues to enjoy widespread popularity, with more than half of students citing the internship as the most valuable course or experience in the major, Simon said.
"They're having an experience that they're . testing against their academics," she added.
For College junior and Urban Studies major Jonathan Gertman, who is currently interning for a real-estate development consulting firm, the internship experience has been especially helpful in guiding his career search.
"I have started to rethink any involvement in the public sector," he said.
But if any kind of curriculum change were to take place with regard to an internship mandate, it would happen from the bottom-up, said Director of Career Services Patricia Rose.
"Perhaps more departments will propose courses with a work component, but that's the way it should develop, from the efforts of individual faculty members and departments," she added.
For now, DeTurck said, students can rest assured that there will be no new hurdles to graduating from Penn.
"I have requirement burnout," he said, referring to recent changes to the curriculum. "My generic position is no new requirements."
