Internships

The Forensic & Investigative Science major at West Virginia University is a practitioner-based program. The forensic faculty are committed to the training of professional forensic personnel. This commitment requires that students have the opportunity to translate classroom experiences into direct services in an appropriate law enforcement agency or institution. 

In order to ensure that students have the opportunity to access and improve skills in applied settings, on-site supervisors, as well as faculty, provide supervision. All internship experiences are supervised in both group settings and one-on-one individual instruction by on-site supervisors and an assigned faculty member, most often this faculty member is the Internship Coordinator.

Internships provide students with an opportunity to make practical application of information and refine knowledge gained in previous classroom experiences and laboratory experiences. Internship experience makes a graduate more attractive to future employers because they anticipate less time and effort in training and orientation. Prospective employers tend to network candidates and are more likely to hire those with positive recommendations received from professional counterparts at internship sites.

The selection of an internship site is a testimony of a candidate’s commitment to a particular area or forensic specialty. During the 2023 summer, we placed approximately 100 students in internships.