LHSI Internship 

From previous experiences, I have gained strengths in my communication and multi-tasking skills, as well as my ability to be detail-oriented. My communication skills allow me to easily connect with my peers and explore more professional forms of communication. Multitasking with high quality completion will be beneficial when balancing college work, a separate part time job, and the internship when it becomes time-consuming. Lastly, being detail-oriented is beneficial in forming questions to ask my supervisor.

As I continue to be more involved within the SPARC project for the spring semester, I have been an attentive team member. I have used every opportunity  to improve my understanding of research and to connect with the other members of the project. I started off solely doing meetings and reading information on the research to better understand its purpose. My role in this project has progressed as I have been involved in reviewing and pilot testing surveys, participating in workflows, and creating drafts of the project's voicemail and flyers. These contributions have been beneficial to the larger project as it has helped with getting closer to gathering data from our participants and providing adequate services for adolescents with mild to moderate substance use concerns.  Though my contributions have been small, it has helped the project progress as one less task is needed to be completed.  

In the fall, one event that led me to feel successful as an intern was in a meeting with my supervisor and another psychologist. Throughout this meeting I took notes on any questions and overall topics that were discussed. Doing so helped me stay engaged and have a clear idea of the overall topic. Ultimately, I felt successful because I was prepared with questions to ask my supervisor and felt I left the meeting with a better understanding of the ethics behind research. Another time I have felt successful was in individual meetings with people in the SPARC research group. By connecting with a Licensed Clinical Social Worker apart of the team, I was able to get clarity on his role in the project and learned more about his life experience. This made me feel successful as I was learning more about the people I was working with and their personal experiences in educational and career aspects.  An additional time I have felt successful as an intern is being able to network with other colleagues in the spring. For example, I had scheduled a meeting with a psychologist that works alongside my current supervisor. By reaching out, I was able to find a mentor for a future research program. This experience has taught me that it does not hurt to ask and to take more initiative in my future. 

The most challenging part of the fall semester was adjusting to a calmer environment. As a server, I am used to constantly running around and feeling stressed to feel like I am doing my job well. I often am in meetings or working with other researchers to complete tasks, and even though these aren’t stressful tasks, I am still being productive in my internship. Another challenge I’ve faced is remembering topics discussed within my projects. In the project that provides learning opportunities through zoom presentations on adolescents affected by trauma, I have learned that taking notes on each presentation helps in remembering and comprehending the topics discussed. I feel that I have fully overcome these challenges and plan to ask questions when they come up on any topics or concerns I have. An additional challenge I have had is creating a flyer for potential participants of our research. It was challenging to create a flyer with enough information that was also catered to adolescents. Fortunately, my team provided feedback and also helped share the workload on this flyer so I was not working alone.