The student will be supervised by one staff member at the host agency (hereinafter referred to as the supervisor), but may also work with others at the host agency.
Externship and Field Project Pre-Requisites
All externship courses, and in some cases field project courses, have theoretical and practical course perquisite requirements prior to registering. For example, prior to registering for a canine behavior externship, students should have successfully completed a Virtual Campus-based canine behavior theoretical course and an Academic Residency practicum course unless prior approval is received by the student’s faculty adviser.
Duration
Externships usually extend through a full semester, i.e. 12 weeks or 90 contact hours. If a program requires more than one semester of externship, e.g. two or three semesters, these are usually done back-to-back. In some programs, students may be required to change facilities and duties, e.g. one semester in an animal behavior facility such as a dog training school or animal shelter (performing behavioral tasks) and one semester in an animal husbandry facility such as a veterinary practice or animal shelter (performing care tasks). Students should consult the program outline and courses in the college catalog to be sure to register for the appropriate course or sequence of courses in programs requiring externship modules. Field projects are usually one semester in length, i.e. 12 weeks or 90 contact hours. Students may choose to work additional hours for additional experience with permission from the supervisor and faculty adviser.
Preparation in Advance
Students who anticipate taking an externship or field project in an upcoming semester are encouraged to read the ACAS Externship and Field Project Manual, and assigned texts or papers if required, prior to beginning the course and to seek to identify possible host facilities or professionals in advance of beginning the course.
Record keeping and Virtual Campus Classroom
Each externship and field project has an online classroom associated with it during each semester to use for communication and questions and answers between students and their faculty adviser. Students are expected to keep a journal or log of activities at the host facility and post this information, as well as questions for the course instructor, in the classroom on the college’s Virtual Campus each week. The faculty adviser will engage the student(s) in critical evaluation of the externship, discuss the professional experience at the host facility or with the field professional, identify operational and ethical issues raised by the externship experience, and explore the issues of procedure that relate to the student(s) experience.
Externship and Field Project Assessment
The student will receive regular course grades and credits for all externships and field projects. Students should refer to the course syllabus for more information.
Thesis Project
A thesis is a research document that represents the completion of the final requirement for the degree being pursued. It is a requirement for all ACAS undergraduate and graduate degree students. Undergraduate Students will select two faculty members for their thesis committee. Graduate students will select two faculty members and an external reader for their thesis committee. Since the thesis is normally the culmination of the student’s work on a particular degree, the writing typically begins when all other coursework has been completed. In consultation with the thesis committee Chairperson, the student decides on a general topic and undertakes the appropriate research. When a draft of reasonable completeness has been finished and approved by thesis committee Chairperson, the thesis is submitted to the other member for examination. For graduate students once the thesis member approves the draft, it is then sent to the external reader for approval. Once the whole committee approves the thesis draft, it is sent to an APA editor. When it is returned and the student has made the changes and has recieved final approval by the committee, the student will defend the thesis (oral defense) with the thesis committee via a teleconference.