Pathways to Wholeness Internship Experience

By:Chanessa Stanley

Getting Started as an Intern

Excited and anxious due to learning new things as an administrator

Nervous about internal changes due to new learning environment

Excited due to coming towards the end of my degree Excited about the challenge as an intern for an up and

coming non profit agency Worried about reaching the goal of hours from home

Getting Acquainted

Agency Context most Learned: Exposed to the community of the agency

Interacted with staff members, executive director, IT staff, and site supervisor Interacted with job preparedness clients at partnered location(Friendship House) Involved and exposed to funding process Attended staff meeting Excel training by IT

Intern View of Agency Context National and Local Context due to women empowerment

Continue gaining knowledge due to beginning process Not exposed to many of discussed contract assignments due to lack of funding

Developing Ethical Competence No unethical observations at my internship due to given

virtual tasks Current Employment Unethical Observations:

No consistent weekly supervision Falsifying Data External hiring without internal posts

Solutions for Unethical ObservationsProfessionally discuss concerns (unethical hire)Adapt to possible change Observe environmental effects, which drives or decreases my

attempts towards change

Using Supervision The first Supervision meeting consisted of Site

Supervisor and Executive director, discussing intern goals during internship experience to convert into a contract

Supervisions, located at the Panera Bread and few times at scheduled outings (library, state building, and Friendship House)

Discussed questions, comments, and concerns of given tasks

Supervisory Challenges, Learned Problem Solving Tactics, and Expectations of a Supervisor

Challenges Faced as an Intern Over talked during a discussion

Problem Solving Techniques Discuss concerns when asked Correlate Cultural Competence Give time for things to work themselves out

Supervisor Expectations Through Observation Follow-up with staff feelings Thorough explanation of employee expectations to ensure employee success

Improvement with Supervisory Relationship Improve my questions to correlate with my concerns

Integrative Processing Model Stage Two: Reflecting, mostly relates to my work ethics

as a change agent and as an intern Assessing your reactions to situations It describes my ability to critique myself in order to

provide adequate services Demonstrates me being open-minded during

interactions during the job preparedness program, located at the Friendship House

I ensure non-judgmental body language during interactions to ensure effective interventions and participations

Communication with Clients Employment Experience:

Children’s Partial Care Case Manager(Previous) Community Interventionist (Full-time Employment) Community Living Specialist (Per Diem)

Gained various experience in diverse settings: Community Family Sessions Individual Sessions Parental Group Facilitator

Internship Experience Life Skills Experience

Most Job Experience De-escalation tactics with children and families

Least Experience Gained Life Skills Training

Communication with Clients (Continued)

Most satisfying atmosphere as a change agent Parent Support Group Facilitator Adolescent Involvement

Reasoning Behind Group Choice Both groups are very vocal about their feelings and receiving

honest feedback of interventions

Developing Cultural Competence During my internship I have not encountered minimal

cultural differences due to the agency is an up and coming agency

Consistent contact with my site supervisor, who is of Ghanaian Culture Involving cultural competence as an intern to increase

understanding of possible reasoning of communication during between myself as the intern and my site supervisor

Gained Cultural insight as an Intern Culture was not the focus during my internship, but instead the

discussed goals of the program Social Locations gained as an intern is having the ability to adapt to

diverse client and staff personalities to accomplish the set goals

Writing and Reporting within Your Agency

Wrote about my experience as an active participant with their job preparedness program, located at the Friendship House

Reports also involved documentation and researching data to input into an excel database , involving possible funding, existing donors, and development of fundraising activities

Strengths of my reports are my ability to provide a complete view of staff information

Improvement for my reporting strategies are to decrease the sight of nervousness during presenting

Continued growth with my reporting involves delivering through messages in a briefer manner

Taking Care of Yourself Throughout my internship experience I have learned my stressors,

strengths, and ways to handle stressors. Internal Stressors

Feeling of overwhelmed incomplete goals discussed due to lack of staff assistance

External StressorsSporadic meeting cancelationsPending assignments due to failure of reschedulingUnmet deadlines of requested items by the internStress Management

oNot to take on more than can handleoAsking questions to assist with effective completion

o Strengths as an Interno Independent assignment completiono Consistently met assignment deadlines

Ending Your Internship Learned Professional Independence Gained administrative skills to assist with future endeavors Minor things I should have looked further into is not looking

further into an agency that could provide future employment and staff members with more to time provide to intern exposure to more administrative roles

No Regrets due to the time schedule correlating with full-time employment

My wants, feelings, and needs after the internship completion is to further grow as an administrator

How I plan continued growth is continuing education as an administrator and receiving continued constructive criticism for effective leadership

Planning Your Career My short-term goals are to continue to plan for the long-

term goals Overall goal is to continue my passion for advocacy

through human services policy formulation Goals grow and change as I do as a person Plans of Goal Completion

Completion of Master’s Degree Attend Networking Events Research Guidelines for set goals Surround myself with professionals with correlating goals Attend trainings and forums to continue education in career

interest