3 Reasons to Host a School Counseling Intern

Nine school counseling interns have been a part of my program throughout my years as a school counselor. I have always enjoyed working with my interns and introducing them to the world of school counseling. If you’ve ever thought about being a site supervisor but still haven’t taken the leap, here are my three reasons for hosting and why I believe you should give it a try.

Hosting An Intern Demonstrates Leadership

Most school counselor evaluations include an area that allows you to highlight your work as a leader. School counselor roles, as described by ASCA, naturally place you in a position of leadership already. You are not administration, but you are also not a teacher. You have additional responsibilities that are unique to you and your school counseling role. When you become a site supervisor, you are in a position to really demonstrate your leadership skills.

You are a mentor to your intern. You give consistent feedback to him or her, and you provide regular supervision hours to keep your intern on the right track. You will arrange opportunities for working with individual students, small groups, and teaching whole class lessons. Additionally, you will typically complete evaluations halfway through the sememester and at the conclusion.

These are just some of the ways you will display your leadership skills as a site supervisor.

Site Supervision Allows You to Give Back

My very first intern was in the graduate program at the same school I received my Master’s Degree from. Her supervising professor was my former advisor and supervising professor as well. Having gone through the program myself, I was very aware of the expectations for her practicum and internship. Although the commitment was serious, as a first time site supervisor, I didn’t feel as though I had a large learning curve.

Whether you have the opportunity to surpervise someone from your Alma Mater or not, hosting a school counseling intern allows you the opportunity to pour back into those who are coming after you. Don’t second guess your knowledge and expertise. You will have more to share and teach your intern than you may realize.

Being a site supervisor doesn’t mean you have be “Super Counselor!” You just need to give your intern opportunities to learn, grow, and experience the different aspects of school counseling under your direction. You’ll be able to share examples of how he or she may run a future school counseling program.

Just like you needed an internship site, MANY graduate students are looking for sites every semester. So, offering to host a graduate student is a great way to pay it forward.

You Will Learn Something

One thing I always looked forward to was picking up a new idea or a new way of doing things in my program during my time as site supervisor. When it was time for my interns to create their own small group plans or put a classroom lesson together, there was always something I learned.

It’s always exciting to learn new ways to teach something or to see a completely different approach to teaching a particular topic. I have lesson ideas from my former interns that I incorporated into my plans for several years. My interns helped me discover better ways to organize all of my paperwork and forms to just helping me purge some of the stuff I had that was taking up space in my cabinet.

As I said before, you don’t have to wear a cape to have an intern, and even though you are teaching them, you will be learning as well.

I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed each of my interns and have maintained some form of connection with most of them over the years. One eventually became my co-counselor at my school and is one of my dearest friends.

Are you a site supervisor this school year? What’s your experience with internship supervision?

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