Internship Opportunities

The internship experience in Washington, D.C. is one of the unique aspects of the Honors Program at Portland State University. Generally, participating students spend one academic quarter of their junior year living in the group-housing accommodation provided by the Program and working at an internship appropriate to their academic major.

Thus, our pre-medical students have pursued both research and clinical internships at the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health; our historians have held internships in the many research facilities of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian; and students interested in careers in law and government have had internships both in congressional offices and in certain carefully selected nongovernmental organizations in the Washington area. Other students have worked at the Folger Library, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Library of Congress, and many other organizations too numerous to mention.

It has become increasingly typical that the research undertaken during the internship has become the first step for the student's baccalaureate thesis as well as a major part of the portfolio for application to graduate or professional school.

For more information about the internship program, in the context of the overall requirements of the Program, look to the bottom of the page here.