Child Life Internship

The Child Life Department at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles offers a full time, 600 hour internship over 15 weeks, practicing in accordance with the requirements and standards set forth by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP).

Prerequisites

  • Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) child life interns may be affiliated with a university at the undergraduate and graduate level, but this is not required.
  • Per CHLA policy, all students must be vaccinated and boosted for COVID-19.
  • Internship candidates must have:
    • Previously engaged with children in both health care and non-health care settings
    • Solid understanding of child development through coursework and experience
  • Although a practicum is not required by the ACLP, we highly encourage students to have completed a practicum prior to their internship experience. Practicum content must be in accordance with the recommended standards set forth by the ACLP. Review the ACLP Recommended Practicum Standards.
  • Complete ACLP Internship Readiness Common Application found on the ACLP website. 

Submitting Your Application

  • Complete the Internship Readiness Common Application found on the ACLP website.
    • Users must create an account to be able to complete the application.
    • Select the Internship Readiness Common Application tile and complete all prompted steps that appear on the dashboard.
    • Once the application is complete, candidates should download the completed application as a ZIP file.
  • Please email completed Internship Readiness Common Application ZIP file to: ChildLifeInternship@chla.usc.edu, attention Amanda Brown.
  • All applicants that submit their completed application will receive a courtesy notice within 72 hours. If you do not receive a notice, please email ChildLifeInternship@chla.usc.edu to verify application receipt.
  • Applications received incomplete or after deadline will not be reviewed.
  • Note: Per CHLA protocols, employees of CHLA are unable to be listed as professional references during and after internship experience.

Application Considerations

  • To eliminate additional potential biases, we utilize a “blind” application review process for selecting interview candidates.
    • Blinded identifiers include: your name, names of supervisors, where you completed your degree(s), where you completed volunteer, practicum, or other related experiences.
  • University affiliated students and their schools must agree to all terms of CHLA’s student agreement.
  • Unaffiliated students will be responsible for purchasing liability insurance, as required by CHLA.
  • Stipends, housing, and/or relocation fees are not provided.
  • Due to the large number of applications received, we are unable to provide individual notifications or feedback to applicants not chosen for interviews/internship.

Application Deadlines

Please click here for application and offer dates

*Please note: We require all application materials be received by the deadlines listed by the ACLP