Guidelines and Responsibilities for Field Supervisors

Understand your role as a field supervisor, and understand how to evaluate your intern.

Thank you for your willingness to supervise an Evergreen intern. We appreciate your commitment to our students—you help them bring the theory they receive in the classroom to applied learning through experiences at your organization. In other words, you help a student’s education come to life!

Your role as field supervisor

  • Ensure that your organization and the Evergreen State College have a signed Internship Site Agreement (PDF) on record. For more information, please refer to the Site Agreement webpage.
  • Your primary responsibility is to support the intern's learning, to provide training and oversight as needed, to keep track of the intern's progress throughout the quarter, and to submit your assessment of the intern's progress to the faculty sponsor.
  • Keep in mind that, while we hope the intern's work will help your organization, the internship is intended primarily to benefit the student and enhance their learning.
  • Make sure you've read the internship contract, and that you and the student are in agreement about:
    • How often you will meet or communicate (we strongly encourage that this happen at least weekly);
    • What kind of supervision and support you will provide;
    • The activities the student will perform; and 
    • The learning outcomes that the student can expect to gain from those activities.
  • At the end of the quarter, you will write an evaluation of the intern and send it to the intern’s faculty sponsor, who writes the official evaluation that goes in the transcript. We encourage you to also meet with the intern to go over your evaluation and discuss their internship learning experience.

Questions to help you evaluate the intern

You do not have to answer these questions in writing your evaluation; they’re just suggestions to help you reflect on the intern’s performance and write a thorough evaluation of their work.

Performance and contributions as a member of the organization

  1. Has the intern developed an adequate understanding of your organization's purpose and functions?
  2. How well has the intern succeeded in performing routine tasks associated with their position?
  3. In what specific ways, if any, has the intern contributed to the ongoing program of the organization?
  4. Since the beginning of the quarter, has the intern progressed as expected in their ability to:
    1. Work effectively with decreasing amounts of direct supervision,
    2. Accept responsibility for tasks of increasing complexity, difficulty, or scope, and
    3. Exercise initiative when appropriate (and refrain from exercising initiative when it’s not appropriate)?
  5. Has the intern been dependable?
  6. What have been the intern’s outstanding performance strengths?
  7. What attributes of performance still need improvement?
  8. What specific suggestions, if any, would you offer the student for maintaining or improving their performance and achievement in the future?

Personal and professional development

  1. How well has the intern succeeded in meeting any deadlines associated with their work?
  2. Have the intern’s general demeanor and attire been appropriate for a person in their position? If not, what changes would you suggest?
  3. How well has the intern worked with others?
  4. Based on your observations of the intern’s performance to date, how would you describe their potential for success in a career in the field in which the internship has been conducted or a related field?

Achievement of learning objectives

  1. Which of the learning objectives described in the contract have been achieved?
  2. If one or more objectives have not been achieved, what progress, if any, has the intern made toward each?
  3. Do you have specific examples or evidence that would document the intern’s progress toward, or achievement of, each objective?
  4. What other skills, abilities, or special knowledge, if any, has the intern developed this quarter?

If you have any questions about your role as Field Supervisor, or are encountering problems with the intern, please call the Academic Deans’ office at (360) 867-6810.