My internship for the COLA PSY 200 Peer Mentorship has been one of the best and most rewarding internships that I benefited from professionally and personally. As a Peer Mentor, I was able to help guide and give knowledge about campus resources to my mentees. I was able to provide neutral insight, effective communication skills, active listening, leadership, and more skills that I can carry into my professional and personal life. Being a Psychology major, one of the many skills we learn is that of listening, empathy, communication, and being a neutral yet effective role model to others. The internship has helped me strengthen and put these skills to use to connect with my mentees. My future career plans like becoming a PMO or LMFT involve these skills, and the internship really helped me in learning the proper ways of successfully connecting with my peers. I really enjoyed providing resources to my mentees and guiding them to resolve their issues whether it be academically or mentally. For my future career, I want to expand on this and put it towards my position.
The internship has made me more interested in pursuing this particular career path that I have planned, and has made me actively seek out related open jobs like the internship. One piece of advice I would have for incoming interns is to give the internship a chance, apply time management skills, and always communicate with your fellow mentors or supervisors. This was the first internship I have ever done and I was so nervous on my capabilities and skills. Communicating with my fellow mentors and supervisors really helped me not only understand how to navigate the internship, but also helped me in professional conduct and assurance that I was doing great. Also, time management is one of the biggest skill sets that you have to learn, as you will be constantly communicating with the mentees, scheduling one-on-ones, group meetings, and balancing schoolwork on top of that. As long as you are communicative, open to your mentees and fellow mentors, and have time management under your belt, the internship becomes much easier to navigate. Because I took a chance with this internship, I can proudly say that I have grown to be more confident, organized, outspoken, became able to lead, and understanding to others. I would recommend this internship to anyone who wants to start interning and/or is interested in becoming a Peer Mentor to others. I am glad that I was given this opportunity and will continue to look back fondly on my time spent in the internship.
Hey Emilea!
I am so glad to hear that interning for the PSY 200 mentorship program has been beneficial. It seems to me that this internship has been able to help you grow personally and professionally, and you get to pass on your knowledge of resources/tips to your mentees. I have no doubt in my mind that your mentees were able to benefit greatly under your guidance and with your support throughout the semester. I am glad to hear that you are pursuing PMO/LMFT since I can see how the skills you applied to this internship will be vital to your career goals. Congratulations on finishing your summer internship and good luck pursuing your goals!