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