Virtual Internships in Madrid
Virtual Internships in Madrid is a four-credit internship opportunity. It’s critical to learn to adapt, acclimate, discover new ways to contribute, and be productive working remotely. Virtual internships combined with the internship course give you an opportunity to learn and develop valuable skills.
Program Details
Location
Madrid,
Spain
Term
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
Summer Session
Credit Type
Resident Credit
Sponsor
Learning Abroad Center
Program Eligibility
GPA
2.5
Student Type
UofM Students
Non UofM Students
Student Year
Sophomores
Juniors
Seniors
About
The Virtual Internship in Madrid program is a four-credit internship opportunity. Virtual internships combined with the internship course give you an opportunity to learn and develop valuable skills.
You’ll work on projects from the US for an international organization while adding a global perspective to your professional work experience. You’ll apply your in-class knowledge to real-world meaningful work, gain experience working remotely, expand your skill base, earn four credits from coursework, and maximize your time.
While we’ll try to place you in your preferred location, keep in mind that our top consideration is making an appropriate match to your skills, experience, and internship goals.
For more information, refer to our Frequently Asked Questions.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:
- Communicate and navigate effectively in a global, virtual environment
- Gain culture specific knowledge of work placement country
- Understand your own values, skills, and behaviors and how different values and communication styles may impact workplace dynamics; develop strategies for adapting to these differences
- Identify and articulate skills and experiences necessary to reach future career goals; develop learning objectives for the virtual internship site that will help you move toward these career aspirations
- Conduct your work during the internship utilizing best practices around professional behavior within a virtual work environment
- Understand and practice tolerance of different cultural assumptions
- Use a comparative framework in essays and dialogue with fellow students to examine cultural and professional aspects of work and how COVID-19 has impacted these environments
- Research and analyze the placement country’s workplace, particularly in terms of social media and online presence, including language, norms, values, economic assumptions and compare this to virtual environment to the US
Program Structure
Program Level
3000-level course
Courseload
One 4-credit virtual internship course as well as 12–15 hours per week at your internship placement.
The course will be offered in English and Spanish. The Spanish taught section of the Virtual International Internship along with a Spanish internship placement can be counted as an elective without a Critical Analysis prerequisite for Spring 2021 Spanish majors and minors. Consult with the Spanish department for approval.
Course Schedule
Spring 2022
January 18: Virtual Internship course begins
January 24: Virtual Internship placement begins
April 29: Virtual internship course and placement ends
The class will meet synchronously six times throughout the semester. Our expectation is that you are able to make it to all synchronous sessions, and do not have another course that has conflicting class times. Class times are listed below
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8–9 a.m.: January 18 and 20, March 15 and 17, April 27 and 29
Fall 2021
September 7: Virtual Internship course begins
September 13: Virtual Internship placement begins
December 10: Virtual internship course and placement ends
The class will meet synchronously six times throughout the semester. Our expectation is that you are able to make it to all synchronous sessions, and do not have another course that has conflicting class times. For this reason, there are two different options for class times, outlined below. You will choose either the Monday/Wednesday option or the Tuesday/Thursday option. Please note that the Spanish section will be taught during the Tuesday/Thursday time.
- Mondays and Wednesdays, 9–10 a.m.: September 8 and 13, October 25 and 27, December 6 and 8
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8–9 a.m.: September 7 and 9, October 26 and 28, December 7 and 9
Summer 2021
June 1: Virtual internship course begins
June 7: Virtual internship placement begins
July 30: Virtual internship course and placement ends
The class will meet synchronously 3 times throughout the summer for 2 hours each. Our expectation is that you are able to make it to all synchronous sessions. For this reason, there are two different options for class times, outlined below. You will choose either the Tuesday option or the Wednesday option. Please note that the Spanish section will be taught on Wednesdays.
- Tuesdays, 8:30–10:30 a.m.: June 1, June 29, July 27
- Wednesdays, 8:30–10:30 a.m.: June 2, June 30, July 28
Coursework
The 4-credit virtual internship course will consist of lectures, small-group discussions, readings, posting to prompts, blogs, essays, a mock interview, and a presentation. Along with the class, you’ll be assigned projects for 12–20 hours per week at your internship placement. The course will help you apply in-class knowledge to your work and understand your newly developed professional skills to articulate in professional situations.
The course will be offered in English and Spanish. The Spanish taught section of the Virtual International Internship along with a Spanish internship placement can be counted as an elective without a Critical Analysis prerequisite for Spring 2021 Spanish majors and minors. Consult with the Spanish department for approval.
Virtual Internship Syllabus (PDF)
Internship Placements
Internships are available in a variety of fields and industries, including:
- Advertising
- Art History
- Art Management
- Biotech
- Business
- Communications
- Computer Science
- Creative Arts/Writing
- Design
- Education
- Finance
- Government/Politics
- Health Care
- International Relations
- IT/Computer Systems
- Journalism
- Law
- Marketing
- Neuroscience
- Nonprofit
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Publishing
- Research
- Social Media
- Web Design
Internship examples:
Developmental Neurobiology Group, Cajal Institute-CSIC
Industries: Neuroscience/Psychology
Description of Organization: The Cajal Institute-CSIC is a 100 years old research institution founded by the Spanish government to help the 1906 Nobel laureate, Santiago Ramón y Cajal (founder of modern Neuroscience), in his titanic labor of describing the basic structure of the Central Nervous System, including the connections between nerve cells. The Institute currently belongs to the Spanish Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-CSIC), and it is dedicated to studying the brain and the diseases affecting the CNS. Our research group is mainly focused on the development of the CNS (i.e. myelination, olfactory system), demyelination (including primary demyelinating diseases, like Multiple Sclerosis) and remyelination (mainly focused on the search for remyelinating agents to promote spontaneous remyelination ability of oligodendrocyte precursor cells).
Description of Duties and Responsibilities: During this placement students will have the opportunity to complete a formation in the History of Neuroscience. Different Neuroscience concepts were established for the first time in Madrid to pave the way for modern and contemporary Neuroscience. Since years ago, our group is also involved in studying the work of Cajal and the plethora of outstanding researchers trained by him, collectively known as the Spanish Neurological School, or the Cajal School. The institutional and private archives pertaining to these neuroscientists have been collectively admitted by the UNESCO as part of the Human Heritage (i.e. Memory of the World programme). There are different aspects of this part of History of Science that remain to be fully studied, which would provide a great opportunity for an interested student/s under the current limitations due to the Covid19 pandemic. The instructor will provide short introductory lectures, videos and reading material. Students are required to follow homework and exercises assigned by the instructor in their own time. The instructor will check students’ weekly progress.
Internship Language: English & Spanish
Prerequisites: Intermediate Spanish level (passed SPAN 1004), background in Neuroscience or Psychology
El Independiente
Industry: Journalism
Description of Organization: El Independiente is a Spanish digital Newspaper, its main coverage is the actuality of Spain, but highlighting international news.
Description of Duties and Responsibilities: Students will cover news happening in the US, and collaborating with the International news section, under direct supervisor of Ana Alonso who is a journalist of the paper.
Internship Language: English & Spanish
Prerequisite: Lower level of Spanish
Greater than One (GTO)
Industries: Marketing, Social Media
Description of Organization: A digital agency driving innovative solutions at the intersection of strategy, technology, and creativity in the health and wellness space.
Description of Duties and Responsibilities: Support the Marketing department in developing Marketing plans and research that will conduct and help GTO´s customer, as well as taking part in all Social Media Marketing Activities, Products, and, Services that GTO offers to the International Market.
Internship Language: English
Prerequisite: none
Sensorimotor Research Lab: National Hospital for Paraplegics - Toledo
Industries: Public Health, Research
Status: Positions Filled
Description of Organization: In the lab they perform investigator and industry lead clinical trials to improve the diagnosis of the symptoms of spinal cord injury in the course of patient rehabilitation in the hospital and at home.
Description of Duties and Responsibilities: They aim to motivate students by using flipped-learning techniques so that students participate in fun group activities, presenting hot-topic mini presentations to their new colleagues, and developing their final written scoping review to an international audience of experts. Along the way students will learn how to use the toolkits to:
- Develop students´ SCI research question leading to their healthcare proposal
- Write student´s scoping review and peer-review for publication
- Present student´s “Dragons-Den” proposal for funding by a research panel
- Understand the ethical issue of biomedical research using case histories
- Analyze real data using qualitative and quantitative statistical tests in Excel
Internship Language: English
Prerequisite: none
Dates Details
Submit the online application and complete the assigned application checklist according to the appropriate deadline:
| Term | Program Dates | Application Open Date | Application Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Semester | Late January–early May | October 1 | November 15 |
| Summer Session | Early June–late July | February 15 | April 1 |
| Fall Semester | Early September–mid December | April 15 | June 1 |
Fees
UofM Students
Semester
The tuition rate for this 4-credit course is the same as other undergraduate UMTC courses and will be billed to your UofM student account. In addition to tuition, you will also be billed a $600 placement fee. If you are already taking 13 credits during fall or spring semester, you can add the virtual international internship course at no additional tuition costs, but will be billed the additional cost of the $600 placement fee. Visit Onestop for additional information about tuition costs.
Summer
A program fee of $2,050 will be billed to your UofM student account. This amount is equivalent to a 4-credit course on the UMTC campus.
Non-UofM Students
Semester
Virtual International Internships are not available to non-UofM students during fall or spring semester.
Summer
Non-UofM students will be billed a program fee of $2,050. This amount is equivalent to a 4-credit course on the UMTC campus.
Cancellation Policy
The regular Learning Abroad Center cancellation and refund policy does not apply to this course. If you decide to cancel your participation in the course after confirming your participation, the Learning Abroad Center will bill your University of Minnesota student account for non-recoverable costs incurred to secure an internship placement on your behalf. In addition to any tuition refund processed per Onestop policies, if you cancel before the course start date, you will be billed $400. If you cancel after the course start date, you will be billed $600.
Apply
If you would like to apply after the deadline has passed, email [email protected] with your preferred industries and we will determine if a placement is still available.
Complete
After completing the above application, which includes submitting a cover letter and resume, your application will be reviewed.
Next Steps
After the above application is complete, your application is reviewed by our program team. You will be notified of an acceptance decision by email. After the initial application submission, you may need to submit additional application materials with our onsite partners. This could include a letter of recommendation, transcript, and/or a cover letter and resume in the language of your host city/country. You may also be asked to conduct interviews with potential internship placements.
If accepted, you will be assigned a confirmation checklist, which you will complete to confirm your participation in the program. If you decide not to continue with the application process, log into the online application system and submit a Cancel Request.
If accepted, you will be assigned a confirmation checklist, which you will complete to confirm your participation in the program. If you decide not to continue with the application process, log into the online application system and submit a Cancel Request.
Register for On-Campus Course
Once you are confirmed in the program, the Learning Abroad Center will register you in the 4-credit Virtual Internship course. No other action is needed from you to register for the course. You will not be able to withdraw from this course on your own, you will need to contact the Learning Abroad Center.
Program Contact
We encourage you to reach out early in the process if you have questions about available placements, so that our advisers can help guide you to the location that works best for your skills, experience, and internship goals.
For further information or questions about this program, send an email to
Amy Garwood-Diaz
or call at
612.624.1537