This chapter provides a look at the relationship between you and your supervisor at the internship site. Along with their other professional responsibilities, this individual may be the director of the agency, a department head, or simply a staff member whose duties include helping interns learn about the work along with all their other professional responsibilities. For our purposes, the supervisor is the person who works with you most at the agency. The supervisor is generally the one with whom the instructor communicates about your performance or evaluations. This chapter also discusses setting goals for an internship, managing conflicting goals should they arise, and understanding the purpose of assessment.

Internships are an efficient and effective way of learning because they provide professional guidance. Often, supervisors can work one-on-one with you in ways that are compatible with your learning style, which is more difficult to achieve in a classroom environment. Although course work gives you an idea of what to expect, it is the guided experience that turns theory into knowledge and knowledge into ability. This fieldwork setting is like a laboratory where you can test ideas and techniques without, hopefully, your experiment “blowing up” in your or your client’s face. Similarly, supervised experience allows you to test theoretical concepts and perspectives in a real-world environment and to find out which techniques work best. The supervisory experience provides you a model for developing your own style as a helping professional; the challenges and opportunities you encounter during the internship process can help you clarify your goals and understand how to use constructive feedback for professional development.