This summer I had the opportunity to intern at an organization called Youth Villages. Youth Villages is a non profit organization that specializes in providing therapeutic treatment to youth with behavioral and psychological disorders. I managed to come across this opportunity while applying for internships through Linkedin. The company has many locations around the United States; however I was fortunate enough to secure a position at one of their Tennessee locations in Arlington. Luckily, this isn’t too far from home for me, so I only had to commute about thirty to forty minutes to work everyday.
The first week of my experience consisted of completing orientation. During the orientation process, I learned about the history of Youth Villages and the mission, goals, and values of the organization. The staff also taught lots of skills and informed us about the resources on site that are used to assist the youth on the campus. I learned a lot about collaborative problem solving skills and different therapeutic approaches to take when interacting with the youth on campus. In addition, meeting the other interns was a nice experience. We had a lot of time to bond and establish good relationships, so we could learn to be a cohesive unit when working with the youth.
I spent the first two and a half days of week two completing observations of the youths’ daily schedules. After that, the remainder of the experience was extremely hands-on. My job mainly consisted of supervising the youth through their daily activities. This task was always unique since each of the youth had their own behavioral or psychological disorders. Working with the youth and establishing rapport was the most challenging part of the internship. However, taking courses such as abnormal and personality psychology gave me perspective of how children with these disorders may think and behave. This knowledge helped guide me in navigating interactions with the youth.
All in all I'm a little indifferent about the experience right now. I’m definitely appreciative of the opportunity and the skills I learned while on the job. At some point, I could see myself doing something similar or returning to the company. I believe it’s a bit bittersweet that the internship has come to an end. I’m sad to not be coming to campus everyday and having the good times and positive experiences, because I can tell those moments really mean the world to some of the kids on campus. However, I’m happy for the experience to be ending. Maybe when I’m more experienced and well-equipped, I would like to return.