As early as January and February, first year students completing their observation hours begin to think about their internship site for the following year. While focused on the day-to-day tasks on our plate for our current classes, we are also eager and anxious to find an internship for next year. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Suffolk’s pre-practicum observation hours are set up in a unique way that requires students to visit several different types of schools. The purpose of that structure is to allow students a more comprehensive picture of school counseling in different settings but also to help them identify the type of school that they might like to intern at and work in after graduation.

Before even beginning my observation hours, I had my eye on a few different schools where I thought I might want to do an internship. I quickly reached out to those schools to complete observations and enjoyed myself at each one of them. I thought that I would like doing an internship at any of the sites based on the people that I had the chance to meet and what I observed at each one. Knowing that you’ll be spending a lot of time with your supervisor at the school, it is important to feel like you got along with them before signing up for an internship. I felt that way at each of the three schools I was considering. So I had to think a little bit more critically about the best place for me.

The primary reason I was thinking of these three schools was because I work full-time for a non-profit college access program. Many of our students attend these three schools and I thought it would be a nice natural overlap between my job, where I planned to continue to work, and my internship. So I knew that each of these internship sites would be a natural extension of the work I had been doing for the past few years. What I needed to consider next was the school that I thought would have the biggest impact on my future.

I thought about each of the three schools and finally settled on one because I thought I would leave the school and enter the workforce in a year with the most transferrable skills. The school has a diverse population and is an urban public school. It is, however, a relatively competitive school with a focus on college that is represented by the guidance department. I thought that this would give me the necessary experience to work in urban public schools as well as schools with a strong focus on college after graduation. I decided to ask if I could come back for a second observation to make sure.

That second visit confirmed my feelings that I did want to intern there. When I asked about openings for interns for the following year, they said they had already chosen their interns. I was surprised because it was only January but understood that they had already gone through the process. The director of guidance did say that there was one counselor, who was a Suffolk graduate, who might be able to take on an intern and that I should contact her. I did and she suggested that I come back a third time for an observation visit to work out the details of the internship because she hadn’t had an intern before. At the end of the visit, we decided that I would be an intern there the following year. After three visits, we were both sure that this was the right decision.

The truth is that we can’t predict if our internship site will set us up for the necessary experience to get a job after graduation. We don’t know where the job openings will be and exactly what experience employers will be looking for. That said, I do feel that I have found a guidance office with a culture I feel comfortable in and that I believe will provide me the opportunity to develop valuable skills for my future as a school counselor. I am thankful for the opportunity to observe at so many different types of schools and make connections with graduates of the Suffolk program in order to help me find the internship I wanted.

Interested in hearing more about the Suffolk M. Ed. in School Counseling? Attend an info session on April 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Omni Parker House. Find out more at the Suffolk graduate admission website!