Careers & Internships

Career Opportunities

A degree in American Indian Studies is an excellent pathway into higher education. Follow the links below to learn more about local opportunities:

Internship Opportunities

American Indian Studies requires internships of all Masters of Arts and BA major candidates and strongly recommends it for all Ph.D. students and undergraduate pursuing minors. Internships offer students a chance to become directly involved in tribal interests and issues for a semester and give tribes and communities the opportunity to have a student make a professional and scholarly contribution in an area of expressed need. Internships also provide students with an opportunity to work with institutions whose purpose is to work with Native American communities.

The purpose of an internship is to provide students with hands-on, day-to-day work experience that is directly related to academic interests. AIS faculty believe that most interns learn as much outside the classroom as they do in the classroom. AIS has a structured internship application process; students are responsible for finding their internship sites within various tribal governments, organizations both on and off-campus, or related agencies. The list below is intended to help students identify a potential internship site, but is not intended to be exhaustive. If you wish to propose an alternative site, by all means do so!

Students may enroll for internships during the Fall or Spring semesters or during the summer sessions. Internships may be paid or unpaid.