Kristy Cook

Agency: Arizona's Children Association

Term: Spring - 2004

I am doing my internship at Arizona’s Children Association. This agency works statewide to protect children and preserve families. The agency offers more than 100 programs throughout Arizona that focus on long-term changes rather than short-term solutions. The goals of the agency are based on prevention, intervention, and preservation. The program where I am doing my internship is the Nellie P. Covert School. This school is located in South Tucson and serves clients that either live on the campus in dormitories or are bused in from other school districts in Tucson.

I have several responsibilities at the school. One of my responsibilities is to help in the classroom. I help the students with their assignments. Many of the children are behind in their academic studies and can’t read or write. I also help the teacher grade assignments. In another classroom, I assist the school’s social worker in teaching the middle school students social skills. Sometimes I teach part of the lesson and other times I teach the entire lesson. The social skills lessons are on topics like controlling your anger, being responsible, and finding your role. These are important for the students to learn because often they don’t learn it from home or in other social settings.

I decided to do the internship because I thought that it would provide me some hands on experience in the field of social services. I think that this is a good opportunity to see what the field is like before I have to look for a job. I also enjoy working with children and helping others. I picked Arizona Children’s Association to do my internship because I felt that I would have a wide variety of opportunities due to the many programs that they offer. Some of the programs that I could pick from are the school, the foster care department, or the preventative programs.

I will graduate from the University of Arizona in December of 2004. After graduation I plan to go to graduate school to get my Master’s degree in Social Work. After graduate school I plan to get a job as a social worker.

Since starting the internship I have learned several things. First, I have learned how to work with children in a classroom setting. I also learned strategies by teaching a social skills class to the middle school children. Another thing that I have learned is how to deal with children who have behavior problems and are constantly disrupting the class. I have also learned different approaches in effectively disciplining the students.

An experience that I have had is teaching social skills to the middle school students. I hadn’t ever taught children who were older in age, only elementary age. I was a little nervous that they would possibly be more critical of my lesson. However, it turned out that it went smoothly. The students cooperated and participated in the lesson. Each week that I go back I am contributing to the rapport that I have built with the students.

If I were to give advice to a student thinking about doing an internship I would say to research the program that you will be working at before you commit to an agency. Try to meet the director of the program and see if the internship will fulfill the goals that you have. It is important to have a substantial role at your internship where you feel that you are accomplishing the things that you want to and learning skills that are important to you.

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