Opportunities
Off-Campus Study
Off-campus study affords students the opportunity to take advantage of the different resources other universities have to offer and to experience life in a foreign country, or elsewhere within the United States.
Government majors may take up to two of their five Government electives through off-campus study programs. Preliminary approval to count those courses towards the major must be sought from the Department Chair prior to going abroad; upon returning to Colby, brief descriptions of the work completed must be submitted to the Chair for final approval. If you change your course selections while abroad, contact the Chair as soon as you make the change and forward course descriptions and/or course syllabi for approval. Note that you may not get credit for courses abroad that are substantially identical to courses taken at Colby. Grades in courses taken in non-Colby programs will not count towards either your departmental or overall GPA.
Internships
Internships provide students with unparalleled opportunities to gain hands-on experience in a variety of real-world settings. Under some circumstances, students may receive academic credit for government-related internships. Internships require the approval both of the Office of Off-Campus Study and the Government Department.
To receive Jan-Plan credit for a January internship, students must work a minimum of 25 hours per week for four weeks and submit an analytical journal to the faculty sponsor.
The analytical journal should provide a reasonably detailed account of your work at the internship placement and demonstrate that you have reflected in some significant way about the experience. The journal might, for example, explain what you have learned about the field in which you have been working, about the challenges the firm faces in its market or industry, about the problems and opportunities confronting the NGO or governmental agency with which you worked. Whatever the issues it addresses, the journal must demonstrate serious reflection about your internship experience.
At the completion of any internship for which credit is being sought, the student must arrange for the internship supervisor to write a letter to the faculty coordinator that describes the nature and amount of the work performed and evaluates the student’s performance. Credit cannot be awarded unless the internship supervisor confirms that the student has worked the requisite number of hours and has performed satisfactorily in the placement.
Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby
Founded in 2003 with a generous gift from Colby Trustee Emeritus, William Goldfarb ’68, P ’00, the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs connects the Colby community to our nation’s most pressing current events, fosters awareness of the role of public policy, and inspires active citizenship. We spark thought-provoking conversations through high-profile public events and create networking opportunities for students interested in public affairs. We believe in a nonpartisan, inclusive approach that welcomes every opinion as part of a healthy discourse.
Our events include world leaders, innovative thinkers, influential politicians, community activists, and cutting-edge academics. We engage students across disciplines and look at how to address complex challenges through creative, interdisciplinary approaches. The Goldfarb Student Executive Board and the Goldfarb Faculty Advisory Committee are actively engaged in driving programming. Thanks in part to generous alumni donors, the Goldfarb Center is able to fund internship and research opportunities for students, support faculty with course development stipends, and award the Franko-Maisel Public Policy Prize to a graduate each year.