Importance Of Community Internship Experience

I enjoyed my internship with the CAN program. I was able to witness a mental health program starting from the ground up. During my time there I assisted with intakes and assessments, attended clinical staffing’s and meetings, worked directly with youth and their families, schedule and planned for activities with the youth and their families, found community oriented resources, as well as completed additional job duties assigned by my supervisor. Overall, I rate my internship experience as satisfactory. I believe over time this site could be a suitable site for a Practicum/Internship student, however, it needs more time to develop.
One of the personal advantages taken from the process of completing this internship has been the opportunity …show more content…
This internship has presented opportunities for me to learn counseling skills, day-to-day operations, and professional etiquette. My communication skills have enhanced and that has been very beneficial. I felt that establishing rapport with my supervisors and coworkers was essential in my position as an intern. Learning to have productive, professional dialogue is good practice for developing relationships. These skills have also been essential when participating in class. My internship experience has given me a chance to learn about myself. While I have been in this position, I acknowledged what I liked about the tasks and responsibilities, what I dislike, and what type of activities I find rewarding. This has helped to chart my career course. I have expanded my horizons and now I have new interests in adolescents. I have been enthusiastic about learning, although, I felt discouraged by the level of chaos at my Internship site. If I could change something about my internship experience it would be the timing of my experience. I came in at the very beginning of a new program. It was a very slow and tedious process. It was not as developed as I would have like it be. However, I now know all of what goes into getting a new program started, from the recruitments to the referral process, to the do’s and don’ts of dealing with grants and the …show more content…
While at my site I focused on developing my skills. I stepped outside of my comfort zone by volunteering for projects where I knew I would learn something new. I took initiative and demonstrated that I a leader. I networked with colleagues and people from various company departments. I also took advantage of lectures, and other learning opportunities. I feel that I deserve an A in Internship because I have worked very hard in this class and gotten much valuable information that will be useful later on. Not only have I grown in the learning aspect of this class, but also in other areas as well. I have been able to explore different parts of Mental Health that have encouraged me to further participate in educating myself in all populations. In conclusion, I deserve an A in Internship because I have given effort and time into learning the criteria. I am now more aware and appreciate of my experience at Community Counseling, due to my two very different sites. From contributions at my Internship site to my input during class discussion, I always made an attempt to give my best effort to help myself, but also to succeed. Additionally, I have attended class, participated lectures and group discussion, and completed the assignment. For these reasons, I believe I should receive an "A" for this