New Internship!

After months of trying to get things worked out, I finally OFFICIALLY have an internship for this upcoming (my last) year of school. It's not what I originally set out to do but after meeting with my would-be supervisor to talk about it and seeing the facility, I'm really excited about it and can't wait to learn from it.

Back when I had my meeting with my internship coordinator, I wrote about my first choice internship: Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS). I actually did get an interview with them and everything went so incredibly well. The supervisor and I even talked about a new group I could run with the girls and she was excited about it. She said she just had to run it by a few others and would get back to me officially. About a week later I heard from her and she said they actually had budget cuts causing her to take on more responsibility and wouldn't be able to take an intern this year. She did say if I have any time she would love for me to volunteer with them and to definitely stay in touch. As bummed as I was to have it fall through, I was really happy she liked me so much that she invited me to still come and volunteer.

So I went back to square one. My coordinator sent a few ideas but nothing was really jumping at me. Eventually she sent me one that caught my eye that was right in my neighborhood. I went to the interview with the supervisor and absolutely loved what she was saying about the program. It got me really wanting to intern with them. She said to think about it and let her know. I emailed her the next morning saying I'd love to work with them. She ran it by the director and I heard from her this afternoon that everything is OFFICIAL. I feel more relieved that I thought I would about having that all planned out.

What is it, you may be wondering? It's with University Settlement - Early Childhood Center. Under the guidance of my supervisor, I'll be providing group, individual and play therapy for the 3 and 4 year olds in the program. There are eight classrooms with around 160 students and 70% of them are Chinese. (My supervisor asked if I spoke any Mandarin or Cantonese - which I don't but said that'd be something the kids can teach me!) That's the general idea; I'm sure I'll learn more once the internship starts in September. Since I've never done play therapy before, my supervisor recommended two books about the topic to read this summer in preparation. I'll pick those up as soon as I can and get to reading. They'll be the first in my own professional library of materials!