Farmington believes strongly in preparing you for the challenges of the real world — while you’re still a college student. We’ll help you find valuable internships where you earn degree credits for working and learning at University-approved internship positions at businesses, social service agencies, schools, and more.

We’ll help you combine course work with exciting travel opportunities: travel abroad, in the U.S., or in Maine. And we’ll help you find rewarding volunteer work (called "service-learning") where you’ll earn college credits for completing community service projects.

Internships
At Farmington we’ll help you find a professional position with an organization where you’ll get to put into practice in the workplace what you’ve learned in the classroom. You’ll work closely with an on-site supervisor as well as a faculty member, who will oversee your internship and assess your progress.

Typically, our student interns are required to prepare for the work experience through readings, maintain a journal, keep in periodic contact with the faculty member, and write an academic paper documenting the learning outcomes. Past internships have been done at for-profit businesses, not-for-profit or service organizations, research labs, government agencies, and more.

Travel to Professional Conferences
Farmington offers numerous opportunities for you to connect travel to your learning experience. In most majors, professors bring groups of students with them to professional conferences, meetings, research sites and other field trips — often arranging for students to present papers and findings of their research. (This kind of thing is usually done only at the graduate school level.)

Last year, Farmington students traveled to a variety of resume-enhancing (and contacts-building) professional events, such as:

• The Ecological Society of America Conference
• The Maine Athletic Trainers Association Conference
• The Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy
• The Council for Exceptional Children Conference
• Maine Archaeology Society meetings
• The U.S. Ski Association National Trade Expo
• The National Conference for Women Leaders
• The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Conference
• The New England College Health Association Meeting
• The Maine Education Statewide Technology Conference
• The Maine Association of Middle Level Educators Conference
• And more

Field Work
Then there are field work courses. In the past few years these classes have taken Farmington students and faculty to Mt. St. Helens, Ireland, Scotland and Newfoundland to study geology; England to do photography; Italy and Germany to study politics; Mexico and England to study special education; and field sites across Maine, Vermont and New York to study archaeological digs.

Service-learning
In a variety of Farmington courses you can combine class work with service to the community. While meeting a real need in the community, you’ll enhance your understanding of the material in your courses. Recognized as a valuable experience by employers and graduate schools, service-learning can also help you obtain internships and advance your career while making a difference in the world.