Running head: INTERNSHIP REFLECTION PAPER 1

Reflection Paper of Internship

Thresholds, Inc.
Mary Pender
Wilmington University
INTERNSHIP REFLECTION PAPER 2

Introduction of Internship

An internship is a certain amount of work experience offered by an employer to give an

intern exposure to the working environment, often within, a particular business that relates to

their field of study. The internship can be from a week to several months. Internships are most

popular with graduate or undergraduate students who do internship between one to four months

in order to gain hands-on work or research related experience. Experiencing how it feels to be in

a real human service job can be as valuable as what a student learns in their studies.

Internship Thresholds, Inc.

The Thresholds, Inc. is a counseling agency, which started in 1985. The organization has

three offices located in Georgetown, Milford, and Lewes Delaware.

As I reflect back on my internship at the Thresholds, Inc., I think about the first phone

call to Susan Harris, the Treatment Services Director, inquiring about the organization being my

hosting agency for internship. Every time I called to speak with Susan, the person who answered

the phone would say, let me check and see if she will answer or they would say, just a moment,

and would transfer the call to her extension for me to leave a message. This went on for several

days of me leaving Susan Harris a voice message about my interest in doing internship at the

Thresholds, Inc. I felt frustrated and thought about applying to other human services non-profit

organizations for an internship. I thought about not doing the internship for the summer and

doing it in the fall. Well, I could have done that, but knowing me, later on I would have felt

defeated. After discussing my situation with my instructor, I decided to move forward, stand

strong and see the manifestation. Finally, Susan Harris returned my calls, but I was not at home

at the time. She left me a voice message stating that she would be glad to have me do my

internship at the Thresholds, Inc. Hearing from Susan made me feel optimistic about working
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with their agency. Immediately I called Thresholds, but once again, Susan was not there and I

had to leave her a message, again. Eventually, Susan called me back and we agreed upon a date

and time for me to come in for orientation. I should have known better than to do internship at

the Thresholds, Inc. because I had all of the warning signs not to. Instead, I ignored my feelings

and decided to give the agency a chance.

On Tuesday, 05-21-19 at 1:00 p.m., I reported to the Thresholds, Inc. and met with Susan

Harris who was my site supervisor and the Treatment Services Director for the Thresholds

organization. The meeting only lasted about one hour and fifteen minutes. We talked about

some things in general, such as church, her two sons, and an individual that she and I both know

who once worked for Thresholds. We briefly went over several forms that interns have to sign,

stating that you agree to abide by Threshold’s Standards of Ethics. Susan discussed general

expectations for an intern, which, included, not hanging out in the front office and not becoming

part of the individual or group sessions. I also signed a statement of confidentiality stating that I

would not disclose any information concerning clients who attend the Thresholds, Inc. The

fourth and final form was about following the policy on internet usage during my internship at

the agency. Susan said that my role was to be an observer the first month of internship.

Mondays and Thursdays were my days to report to the Thresholds, Inc. The brief meeting ended

with Susan walking me through the facility to meet the other staff members.

On the form of general expectations of interns, it stated that, after the first month of

observing different jobs, the intern could move to a more active role. However, the site

supervisor and one of the counselors could only make that decision. The form also stated that

the site supervisor, Susan Harris, would meet with the intern in a group or separately each week.

The weekly meetings were to discuss the things I observed and participation in the groups or
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one-on-one sessions. Unfortunately, Susan never met with me to discuss anything concerning

my internship unless I initiated it.

The first full day of my internship at the Thresholds, Inc., I reported to the front office

expecting to find instructions from my site supervisor, Susan Harris, for the staff and me. One of

the office workers told me that there were none, and the other office worker, Kim, stated that she

did not know what to do with me. In the meeting with Susan Harris on Tuesday, 05-21-19, she

informed me that she would not be in the office that day, but I was to start learning about the

intake process. I could not believe that my site supervisor, the Treatment Services Director of

Thresholds, left me with nothing to do. I know that she wanted me to observe the intake process

with Rebecca, but she also knew that it was no guarantee a client would be coming in for intake.

It all depended on the client’s working schedule. After some of the clients finish working, they

have to report to probation and parole, and those meetings can take a long time. In the end, my

internship was almost over by the time a client would come in for an intake. My first day of

internship was spent in an office that was not occupied by a counselor, reading the agency’s

guidelines and procedure manual in order to pass away time.

My schedule for internship was on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm.

Once I found out about the different outpatient group sessions that were held on Mondays and

Wednesday mornings, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, I requested that my internship

schedule be changed so I could attend the different groups. Attending these groups helped me

tremendously because I had no real work to do, and my site supervisor did not seem to be

concerned about it. She did send an email on 06-05-19 to three of the counselors, stating that I

would be at Thresholds from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm. and to have me sit in on open intakes. She

stated that she did not want me sitting in the office by myself. She also said that if the intakes
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were slow, they were to train me on answering the phones. I was to sit in on Betsy’s evaluation

scheduled for that morning if I was not in an intake. She also instructed Shemeika to do role-

play intakes with me if her intakes were slow. My internship at the Thresholds, Inc. consisted of

attending and helping facilitate groups. I did a few one-on-one mental health-counseling

sessions, and input data of the client satisfaction surveys in the computer. I expected to attend

and participate in the groups and individual counseling session. I also thought that I would have

special projects to work on and attend at least one or two activities with my site supervisor. All

the time I was at Thresholds, my site supervisor never came to me to see how I was progressing

in the internship. She never asked if I even understood what I was doing.

Conclusion

I believe an internship should be the type of program that is fitting to the intern’s needs.

They should not have to initiate jobs or projects to do for the agency, but if so, let it be a learning

experience. Interns should be receiving the kind of experiences that would help prepare them for

their future job in the human services field.