Ideally, an internship allows you to combine your liberal education with practical on-the-job experience in your field(s) of study. An internship is not, however, just "getting work experience." At its best, an internship forces you to test and apply your academic learning in the world of work, to confront the real-world relationships between theory and practice, and to bring back to your traditional academic classes a significant degree of practical insight and intellectual maturity. Most importantly, a successful internship depends upon your willingness and ability to work independently and productively at a job and then to integrate that work into an academic framework of personal and intellectual value.