The Liberal Arts Management Program (LAMP) major at Virginia Wesleyan College allows qualified students to complete their major curriculum by undertaking a full-time internship in the spring semester of their senior year. The program is somewhat unique in that the student interns work full time (40 hours per week for 16 weeks) and thus are in a position both to contribute to the success of the sponsoring agency's efforts as well as undertake a terrific learning experience as they apply their academic preparation in the real world. Internships can be designed to fall into one of the following three major categories or some combination of two or more types:
Operations
The intern performs specific, on-going responsibilities that are an integral part of the sponsoring agency's daily operations.
Special Projects
The intern is assigned projects which are of use to the organization but difficult to undertake by regular employees who are committed to daily operations.
Management Trainee
The student rotates through several or all of the organization's departments or functional units.
Another innovation with the LAMP Internship is that the students are responsible for finding their own internships. This is accomplished in the context of a three-semester hour "pre-internship" seminar which is taken in the fall of the senior year. While sometimes unpaid, the internship can be a paid position as long as the remuneration is below market rates. This ensures that the sponsoring agency will be obligated to provide a learning environment for the student intern.
Once a position is found, a "learning agreement" is developed which includes the work objectives determined by the sponsoring agency, learning objectives developed by the student, and a clearly defined method for evaluating the student's success in attaining the work and learning objectives. The completed learning agreement is then agreed to in writing by the sponsoring agency, the student intern, and the faculty director.
During the course of the internship the intern meets with other student interns in a weekly, evening seminar taught by the LAMP Internship Director who is a member of the full-time faculty. The internship field experience awards twelve semester credits, which are graded on a pass/fail basis. Grades are assigned by the faculty internship director in consultation with the designated work supervisor from the sponsoring agency. The faculty director will make at least three site visits during the semester to consult with the work supervisor and evaluate the student intern's progress.