Skip to main content

Clinical Practice

Clinical Practice

Principal Residency


NCSU Fellows engage in a full-time, full academic year (10 month) Principal Residency (internship). We call it a Principal Residency because our expectations go well beyond that required for a typical internship. Fellows are expected to get the full breath of school leadership experiences so that they can immediately assume a principalship upon graduation as four NELA graduates have already done. The purpose of the NCSU Principal Residency is to provide Fellows a close-in experience with an expert Principal Mentor for a full academic year. Fellows develop strong interpersonal relationships, diagnose student learning and effective teaching, model reflective practice, and master leadership skills and dispositions that support school improvement efforts. Learn more about the Principal Residency by visiting go.ncsu.edu/nelaresidency

Summer Community Internship


In addition to the full-time academic year principal residency, the NCSU Summer Community Internship is a focused experience in the local community that surrounds the Fellow’s principal residency school.  Fellows provide service to a community agency during the six week internship. They write grant proposals to receive funding to connect that community agency to their yearlong internship school. The experience is co-constructed with NCSU’s 4H Extension office. Learn more about community internships by clicking here.