Elizabeth Anderson is completing her internship this semester at Kelchner Fitness Center on Mansfield University Campus under the supervision of Amy Delozier. Through this internship she has had the opportunity meet with clients one on one, counseling them about the 5 Dimensions of Wellness. These dimensions are emotional, physical, spiritual, occupational, social, environmental, and intellectual. She created her own assessment tools and did her own client outreach. Each client will end the semester with a personally created wellness plan by Elizabeth that holds wellness recommendations in each dimension tailored to them. These plans are based on clients assessment scores and answers, and discussion in their sessions. “This internship has given me the opportunity to learn how to better work one on one counseling clients, how to set my own deadlines and stick to them, and how much I really do love health, wellness, and helping others!”
Cassie Walters is completing her internship this semester at CMSU Behavioral Health in Danville, PA with two programs. The first program is First Episode Psychosis in which support and therapy is provided to individuals between the ages of 16-30 who are having their first experiences with psychosis. The other program is the Crisis program where workers respond to hospital, police, and community calls where someone is behaving in a way that they or someone else who can call believes they are a danger to themselves or others. Cassie is getting a lot of field experience in this amazing opportunity.
Alexandra Timins - St. Joseph’s Center in Dunmore, PA: “St. Joseph’s Center is an independent Catholic agency that strives to provide individuals and families, who have special needs, the opportunity to develop their abilities and potential to the fullest extent possible. They do this through residential, community, and home-based services, outpatient therapy, maternity, and family adoption services. I work directly with the Mother Infant Program, which provides caring and supportive housing programs for pregnant women and single mothers with infants experiencing homelessness. I work with the program to provide residents independent living and support services such as maternity, grief, and group counseling."
Thea Tomlin - Tunkhannock Area High School in Tunkhannock, PA: “My internship is in the Guidance Office. The grades are 9-12 and there are multiple counselors, which will allow me to shadow more than one counselor. My internship involves learning how to interact and help students with scheduling, online classes, personal issues, family troubles, and everything in between. Overall this experience will allow me to understand the opportuni-ties and obstacles of being a high school guidance counselor.”
Shana Hollenbach completed her internship at Sam Access and Management Inc. with the ACE Program. One of Shana's primary responsibilities was meeting with youth to discuss their youth service plan goals. As an intern with this agency, you are responsible for creating the youth service plans, facilitating activities, de-escalating youth and creating a safe space, and writing case notes in DAP format. Riding minibikes, participating in the ropes course, swimming, canoeing, kayaking and golfing with youth are also a part of the intership experience.
Griffin Stone spent his Summer 2019 internship at Luzerne County Juvenile Probation. Griffin sat in court hearings, interviewed juveniles at intake, and rode around with probation officers visiting houses and facilities. His most valuable experience was completing all the paperwork for and questioning of a juvenile at the individual's home, while completing a ride-along with a probation officer.
Connor Decker completed her internship at Bainbridge-Guilford High School. Throughout her internship experience, Connor was given many roles and activities that led her to learn the responsibilities of a school counselor. She scheduled the incoming freshman for the following school year, met with high school students and observed sessions, attended meetings with students, teachers, social workers, outside agencies and administration, and helped to coordinate and conduct events/activities at the Health and Wellness Day at the school. This is a great experience for students interested in being a school social worker or school counselor.
Erin Davidson completed her internship with R. B. Walter Elementary School. She had the opportunity to work with students and run group sessions. Erin also assisted in guidance lesson planning and then taught all lessons on her own. She assisted kindergarten teachers in kindergarten assessment from their end of marking period progress reports. In addition, Erin attended monthly DEC meetings at the county building with all other schools in the district to learn and understand how different agencies are ran, including SAM, Concern, and CPS.
Olga Bilardi completed her internship with Wallenpaupack Area School District under the supervision of the Director of Special Education and two School Psychologists. Olga greatly enjoyed interacting with the students at Wallenpaupak North Elementary School. During her internship, Olga observed all essential team meetings with which school psychologists are involved (e.g., IEP meetings, Child Study meetings, etc.). She participated in parent and student meetings. She had the opportunity to have hands-on experience with conducting classroom observation, such as functional behavioral assessment observation. Olga also shadowed different positions (Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Special Education Teachers, and Social Workers. This internship was wonderful experience for Olga before she headed off to obtain her doctoral degree in School Psychology at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Nicholas Alejandro is a junior psychology major, with an organizational communication minor, at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. He is one of 12 students participating in The Harrisburg Internship Semester (THIS) program, which provides students the opportunity to work in all areas of state government while earning a full semesters’ worth of credits. THIS invites students from each of the State System universities to participate.
Meghan Weber’s internship was with Haven of Tioga County. During her internship, Meghan did community outreach for HAVEN. Her responsibilities included developing social media posts for both twitter and Instagram and facilitating a multitude of programs on various topics surrounding sexual assault and domestic violence awareness. The programs Meghan coordinated were mostly in local day care centers, where she presented a "Three Kinds of Touches" program to kids to teach them about safety and what to do if they experience an "un-safe" touch. Other programs included presenting to the 9th and 11th grade Wellsboro High School students on healthy relationships and personal boundaries, as well as programs on the Mansfield University campus to raise awareness for sexual assault during the month of April (sexual assault awareness month, or SAAM).
Taylor Kotsur - TRiO Student Support Services in Mansfield, PA: “I am currently planning events for our students, primarily on campus freshman, to help them adjust to college. Most of the events involve being active, creative, and getting outside, as well as time management. I also meet with a student weekly to track their academic progress and ensure that they will be successful this semester. In addition to planning events and working one-on-one with students, I have created and am running an Instagram account for the program in order to keep our students up to date and involved.”
Ryan Wentzel - Dr. Jennifer Olivetti, Licensed Psychologist in Camp Hill, PA: “This internship has developed my mind with so much knowledge about how the mind and body communicate with each other. It is truly fascinating! This experience helped me further my under-standing of myself and what to study in the future. There is just so many facets of psychology that interest me. My internship has helped me narrow that down. I am extremely grateful for the oppor-tunity I was given by Dr. Olivetti. For her to take time out of her busy schedule for me was a true blessing, and because of this, my mind has developed in a way that I never thought it would.”
Jordyn Coffee - CONCERN in Mansfield, PA: “CONCERN offers many forms of help for children and their families. A few examples are: behavioral health, adoption and foster care, community, and residential programs. During my internship, I am focusing on the outpatient behavioral health services, which include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Crisis Therapy, Play Therapy, and some others. In the beginning of the internship experience, all interns create goals that they plan on meeting each week. I write a note or two on the progress that I have made for the week with each goal. By observing and shadowing the social workers, psychologists, and doctors, and taking notes on what I notice and what I feel is useful to develop my skills, I am able to reach the goals I set for myself. Every-one at CONCERN, as well as the clients, are warm and welcoming. Because of this, CONCERN has been very beneficial to my learning experience so far, and I am very excited to see what I will accomplish by the end of my internship!”
Samantha Brady completed her internship at the Erie Bureau of Police in Erie PA with the Community Affairs Officer. During her internship, Sam observed the interaction between the community and police officers; observed both police officers and detectives interview witnesses, victims, and suspects of crimes; and witnessed the methods that the Crime Scene Unit use in order to find evidence at crime scenes. Sam learned many things about the daily life of a police officer.
Caitlin Strasser completed her internship at the Mental Health Association (MHA) of Northwestern PA. During her internship, Caitlin worked on Erie Gives Day fundraising campaign and Annual Recovery Celebration, attended Motivational Interviewing (MI) training, held group sessions on mindfulness meditation, made fact sheets on various mental disorders, helped to organize center team files and office, and helped with weekly hospitality and Wellness Connection events.
Madison Berkey completed her Summer 2019 internship at the Columbia County Victim Witness Program. Some of her important activities and roles during placement included attending Court Days, attending Preliminary Hearings, advocating for victims and their rights, and communicating with law enforcement, the DA's office, and the magisterial offices. If you are interested in this type of internship, you will need to be able to multi-task, as Madison was constantly running from filing cabinets to the copier to the DA's office. Some other qualities that Madison suggest are being social/outgoing and open-minded.
Calli Cody completed her internship at The Children's House Child Advocacy Center. Calli had the privilege of working with such amazing people, including CAC Director - Katy VanDeWark. If you are interested in working with children, learning more about childhood trauma, or conducting forensic interviewing, then talk to Calli about her internship.
Shelby Valvano completed her internship with one of the school counselors at Troy High School. She worked with students in 11th and 7th grade and conducted weekly group sessions. Her group sessions focused on topics from career strengths and weaknesses to how to handle bullying. Shelby also helped with Troy High School’s Career Day. Shelby greatly enjoyed this experience and learned a lot about being a school counselor. She is attending the University of Scranton for graduate school to earn her degree in School Counseling. This is a great place to complete an internship if you are interested in school counseling and they will be looking for interns in Spring 2020.
Emily Torres completed her internship at the Tompkins County Mental Health Center in Ithaca, NY. Some of the important activities and roles Emily took on in this internship included: Facilitating coping skills, basic living skills, and problem solving skills classes with client groups (1-15 people); Preparing class material and gathering supplies needed; Updating and creating new class curricula; Entering client data into the electronic health record; Making outreach calls for current clients, and new screeners; and Giving tours to interested people or new screeners, and screen them for risk factors, goals, and barriers. When asked about her internship, Emily said "There is a wide range of things that are experienced here. They range from safety planning with clients, to working on electronic health record information. Being around and working with all types of people was an amazing learning experience. Interning at PROS gives you the opportunity to meet with a diverse population of adults suffering from severe mental illness, substance use, or both. Being able to screen prospective participants and asking them about their risk factors is intimidating at first, but very rewarding in the end. This internship requires a high level of independence and being able to be responsible for your own work."
David Sweeny completed his internship at Lock Haven University with Dr. Tara Mitchell. He conducted a research study on cognitive dissonance. David had the opportunity to conduct and present his study, as well as learn about how research is conducted at another university. With having conducted and presented research at both Mansfield and Lock Haven, David is well-prepared for his graduate program at St. Joseph's University for Fall 2019.