School of Urban Studies and Planning

Internships

Overview

The internship experience requires students to engage with projects in a professional context as a complement to their classroom education. MURP students must complete about 400 hours of internship work prior to graduation. Students also attend a series of internship workshops and seminars as part of the 1-credit class, USP 559: Internship Seminar.

MURP Interns do lots of things from A-Z  including:  analysis, background research, current planning, data collection and organization, environmental reviews, facility planning, GIS, historical research, involvement and community engagement, all the way through writing, X and y axis displays, youth planning, and zoning. Many students already have professional experience, and the core curriculum for the MURP degree equips them with new and useful skills.  See more about planning intern job descriptions from the American Planning Association.

MURP students practice informational interviews as part of Internship Seminar
MURP students practice informational interviews as part of Internship Seminar

About Internship Hosts:

A variety of government agencies, consulting and other private firms, and no-profit and community-based organization in the Portland metro region and beyond have been hosts for MURP interns.  Internship hosts report appreciating the fresh enthusiasm and ideas of interns and enjoy building a diverse pipeline of future planners.

Here are a few examples of our fabulous internship hosts and they types of work interns have done. See the Advising Pathways for more example organizations and jobs within each focus area.

  • Consulting firm ECOnorthwest. They have hosted at least 8 MURP interns since 2015. Interns have contributed to a range of project, including the Greater Hill District Master Plan (Pittsburgh PA) and Ellensburg, WA Street Activation Reports. 
  • Public agency Vancouver Housing Authority. MURP interns have contributed to various aspects of affordable housing finance and preparing grant applications (narrative, map creation, procurement of reports) 
  • Non-profit APANO: MURP interns played roles in drafting APANO comments don the Transportation and Systems Management  guide for Metro, developing a map of APANO PCEF climate resilience projects and map of community assets on 82nd Ave, and leading  community engagement for Canton Grill property development.

Hosts: Would you like a MURP intern?

To distribute an internship or job posting to current students and recent graduates, email your posting to askusp@pdx.edu, and we will distribute it to the Non-Campus Jobs list. In general, we do not refer individual students for positions- your organization will manage your own hiring.

Make sure your post:

  • Has a subject line that clearly states the "what" and "where": ie, "job title, agency/firm, location" - this makes it easier to forward. (don’t put “please distribute”);
  • Specifies compensation rate and expectations for time commitment (if part-time and/or a temporary position) (Note: We do encourage that MURP internship hosts offer hourly compensation or a lump stipend. If your organization is a non-profit organization, you may be able to qualify for an  Community Resilience Fellow(s) from the Institute for Metropolitan Studies.
  • Spells out timetable for review;
  • Has a point of contact for questions.

We encourage host organizations to collaborate with their interns to set SMART goals (example here), establish clear workplans (example here), and have regular check-ins with their interns. 

Another way to support MURP interns is through our Portland Planning Diversity Award! If you have any questions, feel free to email askusp@pdx.edu.

For Students: Internship FAQs (More info provided to enrolled MURP students including on our Canvas page)

  • What makes a good internship? A: Several things: an attentive and engaged supervisor; work that can yield tangible on-the-job experience, a real product, or both; an understanding on the part of the supervisor that the students also need to graduate, and have to schedule their hours in conjunction with class and project schedules; exposure to the life of the sponsoring organization or firm, the roles that planners play, and the challenges and satisfactions of the job. In short, we accept a very broad range of experiences to satisfy this requirement, just as we view the skills of a planner to be applicable in a wide range of ways.
  • Do Graduate Assistant positions count? A: It depends. We really want you to get outside of the academic bubble, and to put your skills to work in settings that might be typical of those you’ll encounter after graduation.  That said, there are ways to get a great internship through a university position like at the University’s campus planning office, or for Community Environmental Services, or though IMS Community Resilience Fellows. From time to time there have been projects through CUPA Institutes and Centers like TREC and HRAC and at other research centers or with individual faculty (in USP and beyond) that have counted. A GA position that is more externally, practice-focused may count.
  • Can I use experience acquired prior to enrollment to meet my internship requirement? A: Not generally. We want you to get the 400 hours beginning from the time that you become a MURP, with the idea that you integrate MURP skills into the work, and engage in reflective practice.. If you are employed as a professional planner (or related) during the time that you’re in the program, we will, of course, allow you to count those hours.
  • Do MURP interns get paid? A: Frequently they do, at a rate of between $20-$25 per hour (as of AY 2022-23). However, internships range from unpaid, to expenses (particularly transportation), to a stipend or honorarium, to an actual hourly wage. It all depends on the organization and its capacity to pay these students for the contributions they’ll make. Again, the point of the internship is to acquire the experience that will build your resume, ground your studies, and help you figure out your next steps. Pay is not necessary for any of that, though we do understand that you have your own expenses to cover. We encourage internship hosts to pay interns as possible.
  • What do I need to do to satisfy the MURP Internship requirement? A: You will log your 400 internship hours on your own, using the approach used by the host organization. We do not need to see a weekly log; we just ask for a signed internship completion form at the end. You will also turn in some other items during your time as a MURP student, including an example resume, workplan, and reflection essays.  These are designed to support you on your career development path, and to help you meet the Student Learning Outcomes for the requirement.