Human Service
As your internship is coming to a close, you have an opportunity to look back on the experience and think about it from a more objective perspective. To assist you in this process, this discussion provides you with several components to consider and respond to. Remember, confidentiality is of utmost importance. Under no circumstances are you to provide any personal or identifying information on any client or staff member.
Write a letter to the next student entering into an internship and provide any information that would be beneficial for them to know before their internship. They may be interning at the same agency or a different agency so the information needs to be generic enough to help someone interning elsewhere. It is extremely important to use professional language in this letter–imagine that this letter will serve as a guidepost for students who will follow. For example, you could identify rich learning opportunities in your specific internship setting and how to access those opportunities. You could identify challenges and offer some possible solutions. Explain to the student what you would do differently if you had had the opportunity to start your internship over.
Read at least 3 classmates’ letters that have been submitted to the discussion board. What common themes can you identify? What differences? Pay special attention to the “If I could start over” portion of the letters. Are there commonalities that faculty or field supervisors could pass on to entering students?
Part Two
Remember, confidentiality is of utmost importance. Under no circumstances are you to provide any personal or identifying information on any client or staff member.
As you reflect on the whole of your internship, identify a few key events that are particularly memorable to you. These might be moments or experiences that were especially meaningful, gratifying, or educational. Discuss the value of these events to your HUS career.
Also identify any experiences that you might describe as “transformative moments” in which the way you viewed a situation, an issue, another person, or yourself shifted in a significant and memorable way. When you have identified an experience of this nature, describe the event and discuss what made it particularly powerful.
In two to three paragraphs, discuss how the internship helped you to integrate and apply the information you have learned in the HUS program. List at least 3 specific skills, techniques or theoretical perspectives you studied over the last year that you were able to use during the internship. Sum up your experience by providing at least three reasons that an internship experience is essential to the HUS degree.
