My internship has given me experiences and opportunities I will cherish for years. On top of all the things I experienced, I also learned a lot. Working with Future Makers has given me valuable experience working with children in general and with children who are neurodivergent. This is important to me as I aspire to be a school psychologist. I know working as a school psychologist I will be around people who are neurodiverse, and I will take the knowledge I gained interning for my organization a long way.
Even though my internship was focused on arts and crafts, it did relate to psychology in many ways. My supervisor tried to make sure that what I was doing was related to psychology in giving me experience working around children with various mental disorders or diversity. However, I do think that it would be helpful for me to have taken some sort of child psychology class, which is what I would recommend as an educational requirement for my internship. I would also recommend multicultural psychology as well, as it was an area of study that helped me prepare for this internship.
Before taking this internship I wasn't sure if I wanted to work with children as a school psychologist, but now I am still unsure. There is a lot I have to think about and factor in because I just got a taste of what's it like to work around children for an extended period. I think everyone working around children, needs to have a true passion for it, because of how difficult it can get and at times disheartening.
To work in this field, you would need to at least minor in child studies, education, special education, or child psychology.
As well as experience working with children who are neurodivergent or have some mental disorder. Some skills you would need would be behavioral management skills, and skills of understanding, empathy, open-mindedness, communication, and problem-solving skills.
A piece of advice I would have for upcoming interns would be that working with children is not always going to be arts and crafts and having a lot of fun, it's also going to challenge you and force you to come up with solutions on the spot. You have to be prepared for anything, but it's all going to be a useful and valuable experience for almost any career.
Below is a photo taken from an art activation we did at "Market in the Alley" where we had children paint a mural that says "Paint the Future."
Hi Devon,
When working with children one definitely needs to have passion, as well as patience and empathy. If you haven't already, I would recommend taking PSY 330: developmental psychology in infants and childhood. I took that class in the spring and for me it really reinforced the idea of wanting to work with children! I would also recommend working in a school setting (it can be a charter school or within CCSD) as an instructional aide, substitute teacher, cafeteria worker, or front office person. Working these types of jobs can also give you a better insight of how schools function and how your role as a school psychologist could look like. Thank you for sharing about your internship experience!