Last summer I interned with Resorts World Las Vegas as a Hotel Sales and Conference Spaces Intern through a self secured internship. This summer I interned with NAMI Southern Nevada as an Education and Support Programs Coordinator through UNLV's Liberal Arts Department. I would say that really both of these internships have had a profound impact on my career. It was at RWLV that the idea of what I was pursuing was not going to be a good fit for me, and it was with NAMI that really solidified my choice to move industries. Furthermore, NAMI has helped me in providing training and knowledge on resources and techniques dealing with mental health challenges in a non clinical setting at the communal level. These skills and information I've learned will help me as I hope to meld both clinical and nonclinical techniques after I complete my Master's program. Which brings me to NAMI and my career choice: I am an aspiring Licensed Professional Counselor and as such will complete the Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor program at UNLV in order to gain licensure and begin practicing. Looking ahead at the future, I am very glad to have gotten the opportunity to work alongside NAMI as both the organization and me mutually benefit from one another. If there was one thing I needed to know from college I would probably recommend English 402A, or any business English class, as the tone of professionalism in writing is taught extremely well. The other area that helped me is communication. However the largest thing I needed to know was reaching a point of maturity; I do not believe it is possible to be successful within this area of work without it. That being said, what drew me to this field? Well, it took a lot of thinking and consideration, but once I realized my goals in life counseling/therapy as an option started growing and growing until I realized this is where I wanted to go. It is going to take much more experience, training, and development, especially with interpersonal communication, empathy, and identifying quality solutions on my part to secure a fulltime position as this occupation, but I greet these things with optimism and drive. A piece of advice I have for incoming interns: Start a morning routine. I know it sounds odd, but having that structure in the morning to start the day off adds so much consistency and productivity to your day.
(This picture is a certificate of when I completed NAMI program training, allowing me to be a presenter detailing my own lived experiences with mental health challenges.)
