Career Services

Michelle Higgins, Director of Career Services

Room 318 A

Phone: (646) 758-7804

Michelle.higgins@journalism.cuny.edu

Yolanda Rodriguez, Associate Director of Career Services

Room 318 B

Phone: (646) 758-7727

yolanda.rodriguez@journalism.cuny.edu

The Office of Career Services offers individual counseling, workshops and events to help students transition into the working world. We provide:

  • One-on-one career strategy sessions

  • Help with résumés, cover letters and portfolios

  • Leads and contacts for jobs and internships

  • Coaching for annual job and internships fairs and other recruiter events

  • Information sessions with editors and hiring managers

  • Mock interviews

All new students are required to meet with the Office of Career Services during the first semester to develop a personalized career strategy plan. Make an appointment for career counseling through Newmark J-School Jobs (Symplicity) at https://cunygsj-csm.symplicity.com. During these sessions, students will polish résumés and portfolios, discuss internship preferences and strategize on potential career paths.

Networking and Recruiting Events

Networking, internship and recruiting events are held throughout the year, especially in the fall semester. These include panel discussions with accomplished journalists, media organization information sessions, a fall Job and Internship Fair. We also host community media and Latino media fairs.

Newmark J-School Jobs website

The Office of Career Services has partnered with Symplicity to create Newmark J-School Jobs, an online resource to help students and alumni manage their careers. You can use this site to:

  • Search for internships and jobs

  • Register for Career Services events, including information sessions and workshops

  • Search the database for employer contacts

  • Use the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s O*Net Online to explore career options

This is also where students upload their résumés and cover letters for review. Updated and approved resumes should be kept on Symplicity for easy access.

Summer Internship Program

All students in the M.A. in Journalism and M.A. in Social Journalism programs must participate in the Summer Internship Program, a three-credit course taken between the second and third semesters. The director of Career Services oversees the program.

Students are expected to meet deadlines set by the Office of Career Services, including two progress reports during the spring semester that detail your internship search and two reports submitted during the summer internship itself.

Students are responsible for securing their own summer internships. The Office of Career Services, however, will work closely with each student to help find and apply for appropriate internship opportunities.

Once students have obtained a summer internship, they need to make an appointment with the Office of Career Services. During this appointment, students will review and receive the Summer Internship Agreement form. The summer internship is considered approved once three parties sign the agreement: the employer, the student and the director of Career Services. Students interning outside the New York area are also required to complete additional paperwork to receive academic credit.

Students on academic probation must receive approval by Career Services and the Associate Dean to intern outside of the New York City metropolitan area.

Students must intern for a minimum of 280 hours. They may work in digital media, community newspapers, major dailies, consumer magazines, trade publications, newsletters, broadcast and cable TV stations (including CUNY TV), radio and podcasting companies. Some organizations pay interns; others do not. The J-School provides a $3,000 stipend for students who are participating in unpaid internships. Students who are paid less than $3,000 at their summer internships will be made whole, up to $3,000, with a partial stipend by the J-School.

Internship partner organizations supervise interns under guidelines established by the graduate program. We ask employers to evaluate the students at the end of the summer. This evaluation, along with the two student- produced reports, are the basis for the pass/fail grade.

International Internships

For students interested in internships outside of the U.S., the deadline is April 30, 2020. After that date, you should see Career Services for help finding appropriate internships domestically.

All students interning outside the United States are required to complete mandatory security training provided by the school to receive credit for their internship.

Students interning abroad must communicate by video link with the Career Services director midway through the internship. Students interning outside the New York City area may speak by video link or phone with the director. Those spending the summer in the New York City area meet for an evening group discussion at the school with the director of Career Services.

Note on the Summer Stipend

In August, each student receives a financial-aid letter notifying them of awards for the fall and spring academic year. For the spring semester, there is a $3,000 award listed in the student’s financial-aid package. However, please be aware: This is actually the stipend money that is set aside in case the summer internship is unpaid. Because financial aid can only be awarded in fall or spring, the $3,000 stipend is recorded as an award for the spring. Plain and simple: Although this $3,000 is listed as an award in the student’s spring financial-aid package, it will only be disbursed if the student is at an unpaid summer internship.

Stipend and Taxes

The $3,000 stipend is considered taxable income.

CUNY requires all students who will potentially receive stipends for unpaid summer internships to file a W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification form, with the school. If you receive a stipend, you may receive a tax deduction by electing to have your stipend applied toward your third-semester tuition instead. Students must inform Career Services if they want the stipend applied to their fall tuition.

Stipends will be disbursed at the end of spring semester. Students must be registered for the fall semester, including the Summer Internship course, and all required paperwork must be completed before the stipends will be disbursed. Students must come to Career Services to sign for their checks.

Note for International Students

F-1 International students must obtain Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Authorization on their I-20 forms before they engage in any paid or unpaid off-campus employment (any non-CUNY employment). This includes being published by a non-CUNY publication in relation to your academic studies.

Publishing articles or work that is part of a course you are enrolled in with a non-CUNY organization and not receiving any remuneration is what we call a grey area of the regulations in regards to employment. If the off- campus organization has an educational affiliation with the School of Journalism and it is part of the curriculum of the course, and there is no remuneration, students technically could publish an article without a CPT authorization as they are participating in the requirements of their coursework and it would not be employment per the Department of Labor rules.

The unpaid positions that require CPT are for internships and practicums, or other experiences that the Department of Labor can consider as employment, even if unpaid. If the Non-CUNY publication/organization has hired the student to write multiple articles for them and they are repeatedly performing a service to the publication/organization and it is not paid, this could be determined as an employment relationship with the organization per the rules of the US Department of Labor. We would recommend that the student obtain

a CPT authorization to protect themselves from an immigration officer (USCIS, CBP, or US Consulate) later determining that it was employment per the Department of Labor guidelines and a CPT should have been authorized.   In other words, getting the CPT for unpaid off-campus employment/service/work protects the legal status of the student now and in the future.

  1. International students must submit a completed CPT Request Form to the Office of International Students to apply for their CPT authorization before beginning any off-campus employment. Please enroll in the appropriate CPT course indicated on the CPT Request Form prior to submitting the completed CPT Request Form to the Office of International Students.

Once approved, the Office of International Students at the Graduate Center, CUNY will issue you a new I- 20 form with CPT authorization on the 2nd page. You may begin your off-campus employment once you have received your I-20 form with CPT authorization and the start date of the CPT authorization has arrived.

CPT is issued for a specific employer. International students will need to apply for a CPT authorization for each off-campus employer. Please apply for CPT for each outside publisher as soon as a story pitch is approved by an editor. To maintain F-1 status, it is important not to begin any work for the employer until you have received your CPT authorization.

Please note that F-1 international students must complete two semesters enrolled full-time before they are eligible to apply for CPT.

Please note: International students may be paid by their internship or receive a cost of living stipend from the Newmark J-school for their summer internship experience, which is earned through a 3-credit course. As with other credits, international students are responsible for tuition related to their summer internship, the cost of which will be charged to the third semester bill.

Further information regarding CPT is available at: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Prospective-Current- Students/Current-Students/International-Students

Spring/Fall Internships

Internships are not allowed during the first semester when new students need to focus solely on their coursework. However, students who wish to intern in the second or third semesters, in addition to the required summer internship, may do so. Students must get written permission from their advisers and the director of Career Services.

Students in good standing who have a GPA below 3.7 may intern for 10 hours a week, or 150 hours a semester. Students with a GPA of at least 3.7 may work up to 16 hours a week, or 240 hours a semester. Students on academic probation are not eligible for fall/spring internships.

Only one internship – either the spring or fall – may be used for graduation credit. This fall or spring internship must total at minimum 150 hours over the semester for the course to count toward graduation credit. The student is required to submit a written report toward the end of the fall or spring semester that evaluates the internship, similar to the Second Report that the student writes at the end of the summer internship.

Students must receive a positive written evaluation from their internship supervisor to receive a passing grade.. Fall or spring internships must include news-editorial work — no public relations, marketing or advertising — and consist of hands-on journalism: reporting, writing, research, producing, fact checking, copy editing; social distribution, social news gathering and verification, photo, video and multimedia journalism. Third- or fourth- semester students who participate in a fall or spring internship must get prior written approval from their adviser and the director of Career Services to register for the course.