As of June 7th, 2027 I have completed my first 2 weeks of my internship at Waypoint in Cedar Rapids. I found this company through Cornell College’s Berry Career Institute which advised me to explore the nonprofit organizations in the cities around me. I applied to a couple different job titles but ultimately got interviewed and accepted into Waypoint’s pre-k program. Kidspoint is a non-profit organization that involves child care from middle school-aged kids to as little as 6-week old babies in their daycare program. My responsibilities as an intern involve standing in as an extra set of hands for the teachers in the daycare classrooms. Over the last 2 weeks I have spent the majority of my time working in the “purple room” or the 3-4 year old classroom. I sit with the kids in the class and participate in the games they play to observe and gain experience in childcare.
A typical day for me starts with signing in at 9am and asking the school director where the best place for me to help out is. Recently, they have been comfortable with letting me pick which age group I would prefer to spend time with, so purple room has been my choice. The daycare introduces young kids to routine, discipline, and responsibility, as each day we follow a schedule involving play, meals, art, and nap time. Children learn important skills and are given responsibilities consistent with developmental milestones. For example, the children in “blue room” who are around 2-3 years old, get milk served to them in cups at meal time, while purple room kids are given a pitcher of milk at each table for the kids to serve themselves.
While this is a small difference, it lays the foundation for effective executive functioning and motor skills. They are expected to use the bathroom on their own, put away their dishes when meal time is over, make their own beds for nap time, and clean up after themselves. We as teachers are not supposed to do things for them, as sometimes they will ask me to make their bed for them or throw something away, but I have to instead encourage them to do it themselves and aid the process of cementing these skills early on. Most of them have gotten the routine down as they have been in school for months already, but it is interesting to watch them do their part and figure out how to complete tasks on their own.
I have loved my experience with this internship so far and it has been surprisingly fun to be a part of. I watch the children play together and interact with one another socially. I listen to the conversations they have with one another and pay attention to the way they communicate their thoughts and feelings. I have also formed individual connections with a few of the students in the class who remember my name or ask about me if I do not come in for a day. They will ask me to sit and read a book with them or play catch on the playground, or watch them while they draw. This alone has given me a new perspective on how these young kids form connections and interact with new people. While my job is to make sure everyone plays fair and no one gets hurt, observing their psychological behaviors at the same time has not only been fascinating, but has reignited my passion and excitement to pursue a career in psychology. I have been able to draw prior knowledge from multiple classes I have taken while at Cornell including child development psychology, education psychology, and learning. I look forward to continuing my learning and drawing different connections between classes and work as I continue working here this summer. Daycare is more than a babysitter for a bunch of kids, it is a place encouraging growth, leadership, respect, generosity, kindness, communication, and connection during a critical period of a child’s development, and I am so excited to be a part of the process.