Institute for Children, Youth, and Families




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Intern Stories

Lacy Waldorf

Agency: Casa de los Niños

Term: Summer - 2002

I am conducting my internship at Casa de los Niños. Casa de los Niños is a private, non-profit, nonsectarian agency, whose mission is "the prevention, intervention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect by providing: residential shelter care to children who are abused, neglected, homeless and/or medically vulnerable; supportive counseling to families; and community education." Each year Casa serves over 1700 children. I am working in the Family Visitation Services (FVS) program. FVS works with families of divorce or separation. The FVS mission is to "facilitate opportunities for children to have safe, neutral and conflict-free access to both parents." My main responsibility is to be a visitation monitor. As a visitation monitor, I am responsible for supervising visits between non-custodial parents and their child as well as supervising the exchange of a child between a custodial and non-custodial parent. After each visit or exchange, I must provide a written report of the interactions between the parents and children to the program coordinator. In addition to being a visitation monitor, I have also been responsible for writing grants and a proposal, creating a brochure for our department, and furnishing our visitation areas.

I decided to do this internship to get a better understanding of what I would be interested in doing after graduation. I have always wanted to work with children, and becoming involved in an internship would give me the chance to help me determine if working with children is something I would like to do. After graduation I plan to attend graduate school to pursue a doctorate in Psychology. This internship has really helped me decide what area I would be interested in studying. I have found that I truly love working with children and I definitely want to work in a career that allows me to help children.

I have learned a great deal from my internship. I have learned more about families of divorce and separation, foster children, and children of abuse and neglect. I have also learned what is involved in grant and proposal writing. Before the internship, I had never written a grant or a proposal, so when I was assigned to do so I had no idea where to start. The proposal was my first priority and after doing research and talking to different people, I was able to get a better understanding of what was expected of me. Completing the proposal was very rewarding to me, especially knowing how much of a contribution it would be to our program. I was given a huge responsibility, and it was very fulfilling to successfully complete an assignment of such importance.

I have taken American Sign Language (ASL) classes, but I haven't had the opportunity to use the sign language I know outside of the classroom. We began providing services for a child whose only way to communicate was through sign language, and no one else in the program knew ASL. The child and I are a perfect match. We are able to communicate, and knowing sign language will help me form a special bond with the child.

I think every student should do some sort of internship. Internships can help students to make informed decisions about their future career. Being an intern can provide students the opportunity to have career related experience, which could help a person decide on career plans. For students thinking about doing an internship, I would advise them to be specific when stating their interests and goals. When you are specific, you can be sure you are placed with an agency that best fits your interests.

My experiences at Casa de los Niños have, more that anything else in my academic years, confirmed that my career goals are proceeding in the right direction.

University of Arizona
Family and Consumer Sciences
1110 E. South Campus Dr.
PO Box 210033
Tucson, AZ 85721-0033
Phone: (520)626-4433
Fax: (520)621-3401
families@ag.arizona.edu