I had the privilege of working with middle school students at the Student Mentor Program with Clark County School District. It was a valuable experience where I got to learn many things such as what students are struggling with, and offering proper guidance to students.
The experience I had mentoring one on one with my mentee has had many benefits for my future career. The mentoring process is very dependent on trust to build a relationship; getting to know the mentee and building rapport was something I was able to improve on. Funny thing, I found that just as you are trying to get to know your mentee they also want to know a bit about you as well which makes sense in hindsight considering that is how relationships work. Coming in and preparing what you want to learn about your mentee and share about yourself is something that will help me in my future career. This internship will continue to benefit my career as it is helping me continue to learn about building others around me rather than solving all the problems myself.
My internship does tie into my major of psychology. I would relate to counseling as the internship is about spending one on one time with mentees, understanding them, and guiding them. It isn’t as solution oriented as counseling, but it provides valuable insight on how valuable being someone to talk to about struggles is, even if no advice is given. As for requirements before getting into this internship, I would say anybody who is willing to listen to the coaching they offer and is able to speak and reflect on their actions is well suited for this internship. No previous education is needed.
A career in the career of school counseling is something that I am considering now after taking this internship. What draws me back is the salary. The positives, however, are that I get to be directly involved in fighting against what is holding back students from being successful in school. Being able to look for solutions and find out what the current situations are for children that are struggling with school now would be very fulfilling for me. It is something to consider.
More education is another aspect of the decision. I would have to achieve a master’s in school counseling which would involve 60 more credits of schooling if at UNLV. On top of this I would need to achieve 2 years of counseling experience and 600 hours of school counseling practicum.
My advice for incoming interns is that you won’t have all the answers and that’s okay. Give your best and learn from your mistakes. Anyways sometimes, especially in this internship, having the mentee find their own answers is a lot more helpful.
Below is one of the flyers I made for the program!
I'm so glad you had a positive experience! There's a lot of "warm and fuzzy feels" working in education- but financial resources is certainly something you should consider in all career fields!