College of Forestry

Forest Engineering, Forest/Civil Engineering, Forestry, and Wood Innovation for Sustainability majors are required to complete a six-month work experience practicum prior to graduation.

Students from all College of Forestry undergraduate majors are encouraged to seek out work and internship experiences.

The following principles provide guidance and outline the goals for required work experience.

1. Promote learning and development.
2. Connect in-class education with on-the-job training through paid (or unpaid) employment.
3. Provide the opportunity for students to “test-run” a type of job, an agency or business prior to entering the workforce in that specific area.
4. Engage students in active practice of their chosen field of work with the benefit of a seasoned professional’s guidance.

Requirements

1. Students must complete work equal to six months of employment.
   • Work does not need to be consecutive six months and can be completed in shorter periods (i.e., two 3-month summer periods, etc.) as long as the duration totals six months.
   • Work experiences can be either paid or unpaid; full-time, part-time, seasonal, internships and volunteer positions all count towards this requirement. 
   • One month of work equals approximately 150 hours; six months equals approximately 900 hours of certified work experience.It is the student's responsibility to track dates and hours worked. You may wish to confirm this information with your supervisor prior to submitting the work experience form in order to ensure consistency and accuracy. 
   • Work should be related to your area of study. If you have questions about the type of work that is acceptable, please make an appointment to speak with your Advisor.
2. Work experience forms should be submitted NO LATER THAN ONE TERM BEFORE YOUR ANTICIPATED GRADUATION TERM.This allows supervisors, Department Designees and Advisors sufficient time to evaluate and certify your work.

Learning Outcomes

By accomplishing 6-months of work experience, students should be able to:

1. Critical Thinking - Address the level of critical thinking they have obtained that has allowed them to comprehend, retain, and apply newly learned principles, procedures, tasks, etc. at an appropriate level for the position.
2. Obligations - Assess how they accepted and fullfilled obligations with initative, reliability and consistency (in quality, timeliness, accuracy, skill level, attendance, etc.)
3. Methods - Evaluate the methods by which they provided feedback and practiced judgments in a communicative and constructive manner that engages critical thinking skills.
4. Engagement - Demonstrate how they engaged in safe practices and performance of duties.
5. Communication - Describe how they effectively used verbal and written communication skills to demonstrate clarity of expression, clear organization of ideas, and an understanding of appropriate/specialized vocabulary; and express interpersonal communication competence.
6. Leadership - Describe how they took on leadership roles or displayed leadership with the goal of professionally organizing and directing plans, procedures, teammates, etc. 
7. Fit - Explain how this work experience fits into their career goals and/or their program of study(major).

Student Instructions

1. Login to the system using your ONID credentials by clicking "Log in" below.
2. Complete and submit the Practicum Summary form with the following information:
   • Employer Name
   • Employer Address
   • Supervisor Name and Title
   • Supervisor Email Address (this is the email address that the employer evaluation will be sent to)
   • Your position title
   • Dates of Employment
   • Hours worked during employment period
   • Type of work you performed
3. Assess your work experience by addressing each of the six learning outcomes. Completion of the student work experience summary form is expected to take approximately20 minutes. An appropriate word length for each answer is around 150 words. You cannot save your progress as you work through the form (it must be completed in one sitting), therefore you may wish to draft your answers in a separate document and copy and paste them into the form.
   • When writing about your work experience and learning outcomes please write professionally, and with clarity and coherence.
4. Your direct supervisor will be asked to complete an evaluation of your performance and assign the degree of competency reached for each of the learning outcomes. Supervisors will also be asked to confirm the dates and number of hours you worked. It is suggested that you discuss your required work experience and the evaluation request prior to submitting it so supervisors will be expecting it. If your supervisor does not receive the evaluation request, they may need to check their spam/junk folder.
   • If your immediate supervisor is a current OSU undergraduate student, please have an employee who is not a current OSU undergraduate and is in a supervisory role complete the employee evaluation. You will need to provide a name and email address for the evaluation to be sent. 
   • If you are self-employed and do not have a direct supervisor, your work experience will be evaluated by a member of the College of Forestry who will determine if your work meets program guidelines and should be forwarded to the Department Designee for certification.
5. You have the option of uploading supporting documentation to the form for the Department Designee and Academic Advisor to evaluate, along with your learning outcome answers. This is not required, just an option if you feel it will help clarify the position and why it should be counted toward the work experience requirement.
6. Please work with your advisor to determine the appropriate type of work experiences.
7. Click Save.
   • You only need to click Save once. You will receive a confirmation email that your submission has been received.
8. To check the status of your work experience simply log in to the system again.