When senior Travis Gillespie first approached the Career Development Center, the office required him to enroll for credit in order to get an internship.

This semester, however, the office — formerly known as Cooperative Education and Internships — provided Gillespie with a new alternative — zero credit hours. This means Gillespie and other students will not have to pay tuition in order to have an internship recognized on a transcript.

“Some internship credit applies toward my program,” he said. “But I’m on my third semester in strategic communication and I don’t need three credits.

“Zero-credit is a great tool for tailoring a flexible learning program.”

Sara Muzzy, director of Career Development, said the increasing demand for a program of this sort triggered its planning, and she explained the difficulties numerous students endured before its conception.

“We came to realize that students needed more options to participate with our office,” Muzzy said. “What if you didn’t need credit, or you already completed the required credits in your major? We have frequently had students come into the program and they forget that they have to enroll and they are hired by one of our employers, and they didn’t plan that extra money to be spent on tuition, and so they came up short.

“They ran out of financial aid, they didn’t have enough money, and they didn’t want to pay tuition for credit.”

Muzzy said the zero-credit option took more than a year to put together, during which organizers approached every dean at the university to receive approval from each academic areas before proceeding.

Nevertheless, international students still need to enroll in a number of credit hours given the extensive requirements of their office.

“Hopefully in the future, something will change,” Muzzy said. “But, right now, it’s not a possibility.”

Despite this emerging opportunity, senior Natalie Morerod said she prefers the traditional way of getting an internship through the department.

“Personally, I would rather get credit for a class,” Morerod said. “I would definitely rather get credit for the school, and if I could get paid also, that’s a double bonus.”

For more information about zero-credit internships, contact Career Development at 978-3688, or visit wichita.edu/coop.