My Silver State Service Dogs internship has been a diverse and fulfilling experience. It taught me how to become a better team player, improve my public speaking skills, show my creative side, and be passionate about helping my community. The two most important abilities I will take away from this opportunity will be networking and understanding how to educate others. I learned how crucial it was to get in touch with the right people, meet and outline mutually beneficial goals, and maintain these relationships long after the events were over. Each public outreach involved different groups, and effectively communicating meant understanding my audience and their culture.
Along the way, I had the opportunity to practice my research skills by providing my team with the most current studies on human-animal interactions (HAI) and animal-assisted interventions (AAI). As a result, I was able to educate my team and the general public on HAI theories and why AAI potentially improved the quality of life in many individuals. It also helped me gain depth in my understanding of the pros and cons of service dogs for veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. As someone seeking to enter the field of clinical psychology, work with clients, and conduct research, this semester was an invaluable peek into my future career.
Supporting the organization's social media campaign allowed me to express my creative side using Canva to create posters and infographics for our weekly uploads. In addition, my main task of managing the health clinic helped me learn to be more efficient and detail-orientated. It provided me with opportunities to take the initiative in creating my own projects, know the importance of animal health and temperament, and learn about the procedure involved in training service dogs. Most importantly, even though I was managing a clinic for animals, it still exposed me to what a clinic operation looked like day-to-day and helped me understand what to expect in my future health care practice.
I truly enjoyed being involved with Silver State Service Dogs as it combined mental health and community service. Even though I do not plan to pursue a career running a non-profit organization, understanding the system will help me better support them as a volunteer and donor. As a clinician, SSSD will be a helpful resource to draw upon to help some of my patients. I will continue volunteering beyond the scope of this internship. I am grateful for the connections I made, and I stand behind SSSD's mission of helping those in the margins.
Hi Donna,
I really love animals, so your post really got my attention! I had no idea that an internship such as yours would be such a great match with psychology majors, and I'm really glad it worked out for you! I also was allowed lots of creative freedom through creating weekly posts with Canva; having that room to try out new things every week really did wonders for my confidence and I hope you had a similar experience in that aspect. It's great that you got the opportunity to practice your research skills, as chances like that seem pretty uncommon in internships. As someone who is also looking at careers in mental health (not clinical psychology, but probably therapy), what you learned in this internship will definitely help you going forward. Thanks for sharing, and good luck in the future!
Hi Donna,
I really love animals, so naturally your post caught my eye! I think this internship sounds like an amazing internship and it is awesome that it aligned with your major so perfectly. It is really cool that you got to take initiative and create your own projects and demonstrate that creative side to everyone. Not all internships will give you hands-on research experience, so it will definitely be helpful to you in your future career since you were able to get the research aspect of the internship as well. Overall, great post and thanks for sharing!
Hi Donna, I too have an interest in clinical psychology. Furthermore, it is amazing to read about your research interests that relate to human and animal interactions. It is also extremely fascinating to learn about animal-assisted interventions (how cool!). Additionally, it sounds that you had a great experience working with Silver State Service Dogs as it was meaningful work to you as it is evident how this can be a helpful resource to draw upon to help some of your patients. Best of luck with your future endeavours, you are going to do awesome things! Keep up the great work,
Angelos Tsalafos