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Internships This section includes reflections from students who are currently in their internship placement from Counseling and Human Services, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling, and School Counseling Programs. We also included a practicum student as well because of their direct contact with clients and community prior to entering internship. They reflect on how our department impacted them, how they apply classroom material, how self-care has played a role, and advice for those getting ready to enter internship or practicum! The success in these internship experiences contributes to the continuous evaluations and positive outcomes put forth by our department. CHS Internship: 150 hours
CHS Advanced Internship: 200 hours
Practicum: 100 hours
Graduate Level Internship: 600 hours
CHS Internship This semester, I am interning at EOTC, a social service agency located in Scranton. The experience has been a unique and exciting opportunity to become familiar with the human services field as well as start figuring out what my career path might look like. I discovered the agency on a site visit with my Career Seminar class, and was immediately interested. Though social work is not the area I want to pursue after graduation, my internship has offered me the ability to get involved in a variety of programs and grow in my understanding of the human services field. So far, I have been able to participate in a youth mentoring program for underprivileged children as well as sit in on drug treatment court and supervised visits. When I am in these programs, it is important to treat all people with the same respect and be mindful of the different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds people are coming from. I have seen people from the same area go through extremely different life experiences and it is an important reminder that we can never assume what someone is dealing with. My supervisor and other EOTC workers have helped teach me how to interact with different populations as well as how to set boundaries as a professional. These boundaries include what is appropriate and inappropriate to do and talk about with clients as well as how to adequately insulate myself from my work. Being able to practice self-care and not get overinvested in cases will help me to remain as effective as possible as a professional and stay physically and emotionally healthy. For students looking to find internships, my main advice would be stay open to a wide range of possibilities. You don’t have to find something exactly matching your interests because experience in any area will be beneficial and you may discover a passion for a particular field or population that you wouldn’t have found otherwise. Stay open-minded and dive in!
Geoffrey Morton
