MEDIA ADVISORY


	A 20th Anniversary Celebration of the University Internship
Program (UIP) will be held on Monday, April 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. in
Alumni Hall at the University of Virginia.

	UIP Director Nancy Gansneder will announce the creation of
Leadership 2020, a program that will encourage student participation
in local government, at the reception, sponsored by U.Va.'s Weldon
Cooper Center for Public Service and the sociology and psychology
departments of the College of Arts and Sciences.

	She will also release preliminary findings of a federally
funded study examining the impact of internships on U.Va. graduates'
careers and community service.

	Recognized nationally as a model program, UIP has placed more
than 4,000 interns who have provided 1.2 million hours of service in a
wide variety of human services, government and business settings in
the Charlottesville area.

	The nearly 200 Charlottesville organizations and U.Va.
departments that have been sponsoring interns throughout UIP's 20
years will be honored at the reception. Current and retired U.Va.
faculty who have helped the internship program grow and gain support
will also be recognized. 
	
	Students gain academic credit by participating in the
internships, attending weekly seminars led by faculty in the sociology
or psychology departments, completing reading assignments, making
class presentations and keeping journals describing their experiences. 

	"I can't think of another course that has had this kind of
lasting impact," Gansneder said.

	Two-hundred-forty students are completing the
two-semester-long academic internships this spring, and another 85
will hold summer internships.

	For more information, call Nancy Gansneder at (804) 982-5552. 

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April 17, 1997

	Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804)
924-7550.