The path from undergraduate major to career is not as linear for history majors as it is for pre-professional majors. In order to position yourself to translate the knowledge and skills you learn as a student to the rest of your life, it’s all the more important to seek internships and other real-world experiences while still in college.
History majors are strongly encouraged to take internships for course credit. Not only do internships give students invaluable professional experience, but they also allow them to apply their research, writing, and analytical skills in the world outside of academia.
The Department of History encourages all of its majors to take advantage of our Washington, D.C. location by interning at one or more of the museums, think tanks, governmental offices, galleries, or non-profits located in the area. Over the past year alone, history majors have earned course credit for internships at the Smithsonian Museum of American History; at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; on Capitol Hill as Congressional interns; and in D.C.-area law firms and lobby groups.
History majors can also take advantage of the summer months to conduct internships further afield. In recent years our students have interned at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Libraries in Hyde Park, New York; for the New Zealand Labour Party; in the British Parliament; and in Washington-area museums such as the National Building Museum and the Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens.
Help in finding relevant internships is also available from Catholic University's Office of Career Services. To receive credit for an internship (History 495), fill out the application form (available here
) and send it to the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Árpád von Klimó. To learn more about the importance of internships for history students, see the “Useful Links” section on our “Career Paths” page. Internships for course credit must be unpaid, have historical relevance, and include an academic component, consisting of reading and writing in consultation with the undergraduate advisor. For more information, contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies, or see the School of Arts and Sciences internship page.