This school year we have five Social Work (BSW) Interns from the University of Washington Tacoma and Pacific Lutheran University who are assisting our School Outreach Coordinators at Sequoyah, Illahee, Sacajawea, and Lakota Middle Schools, and Thomas Jefferson High School. The BASW interns are applying what they have learned in the classroom to help our students overcome their barriers to success and achieve their goals!
Our School Outreach Coordinator, Alicia Vasey, at Sequoyah Middle School has her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Texas, making her a qualified Practicum/Field Instructor, which is required by UWT and PLU. As the Practicum Instructor, Alicia works with the interns to develop their student learning goals, monitor their learning progress, and provide feedback and evaluation for the students. The students are required to be at their school site a minimum of 16 hours per week, which includes group seminars led by Alicia to discuss challenges and questions, as well as ways to integrate social work theory into practice. Sala Afalava, at Illahee Middle School, says, “Working with CIS, I have received the training and experience of incorporating theoretical frameworks to assess and evaluate students’ needs to be able to help guide them to a solution that is beneficial to them.”
One of the biggest challenges the interns have faced this year is just being young and lacking experience in a professional setting. All of them are working on their professionalism in the workplace as one of their learning goals, and our School Outreach Coordinators are there to help guide them toward reaching that goal. While their age has presented a challenge at times, they have realized that it is also an asset! Yulisa Cardona, our intern at Sacajawea Middle School says, “I’ve realized that my age is an advantage because I am able to connect with students on a different level than the rest of the staff is able to.” Similarly, Olesya Baranova, at Thomas Jefferson High School, states, “Going into it, I was nervous. I am not much older than the students, but I think that it actually helps because the kids really trust me with the issues they are going through.”
Last year, was the first year that Communities In Schools utilized a Social Work intern. Esther Eligio, now one of our AmeriCorps Members, interned at Sequoyah Middle School while she was finishing her Senior year at Pacific Lutheran University. “Being an Intern with Communities In Schools gave me a good idea of what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to go,” Esther says. She notes that the transition from Intern to AmeriCorps was an easy one and has given her more time to strengthen and build on the learning goals that she had as an intern.
These five interns have been a great addition to our Communities In Schools team and have brought a fresh new perspective. They add another layer of support that we are able to provide to students, and at the same time they are gaining valuable professional experience in a challenging but supportive environment. Sarah Fitzpatrick, at Lakota Middle School, notes, “CIS has given me so much more confidence in myself and in my skills.” Brendan Bonnell, at Sequoyah Middle School, says, “Everything that I am doing at my internship with CIS is preparing me for the career I have chosen.”
