What do you want to achieve during your internship? Your answer will help you focus your time in those directions. Often, your learning objectives are either vague or general and hard to measure. Setting goals can help you operationalize your learning to help you stay on track and be able to show your growth. By operationalize, we mean you should, for instance, be able to describe what your goals are so that others can help you identify opportunities or assignments that will help you reach them. This type of planning and prioritizing allows you to play an active role in your education. It also helps others know what to do to help make the internship a good one for you.

A helpful strategy for creating goals is to use the acronym SMART (adapted from Doran, 1981). Smart goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based (or trackable). The more specific your goal, the easier it will be to know when you have achieved it. In figure 6.1, we take a learning objective often assigned to human services students in their first term of internship and turn it into a SMART goal.

Figure 6.1 This table shows how you can adapt a learning objective using SMART goals. The original learning objective was “demonstrate an understanding of placement site structure, mission, services, policies and procedures.”

Let’s say your goal is to help with referrals. You could make it a SMART goal by phrasing it this way: “My goal is to manage the referral desk (specific) for 5 hours (measurable) 1 day a week (achievable) in order to become familiar with local resources (relevant) for ten weeks (time-based).” This also makes the goal measurable and time-based, since you will know at the end of the term whether this was achieved. Whether your goal is achievable depends on different factors. The longer you stay at an agency, the more independence you will probably receive because your supervisor and coworkers have had a chance to see your work. You may have to create goals that build upon each other throughout the time you are there. “Relevant” has to do with what your personal goals are for your internship. If knowing about resources in the community is something you seek, then staffing the referral desk is relevant to you. If you are more interested in learning about how to work with clients within the agency itself, then this goal may not be relevant enough for you.

Figure 6.2 What comes to mind when you think about “supervision”? Would you prefer a formal sit-down meeting, or is stopping by your desk to chat enough?

6.2.1 When You’re Not Moving Forward

Often, a supervisor will help set up a work schedule but then become too busy to adjust it in ways that lead to increasing degrees of training and skill acquisition. Consider this situation: Mohamed was working at a busy mental health facility and found himself underutilized. Mohamed’s supervisor set up a supervision schedule, but often canceled the meeting and stropped by Mohamed’s desk at different times during the week. Mohamed began to feel like they were just keeping him busy with mundane tasks to meet the hours required.

If you, like Mohamed, feel the internship has lost its sense of direction or you are not progressing, it is important to think about how you want to move forward. Instead of complaining to the supervisor, you might consider presenting them with a plan that would move you toward your goals or increase your level of responsibility or involvement. If you have trouble formulating a plan, it might be a good idea to share your situation with your instructor or classmates since they are part of your network and can act as resources who can help you generate possible solutions.

In the situation described above, Mohamed felt frustrated he wasn’t learning as much as he’d hoped. Since he was interested in doing community work, he proposed to create a book of community services that people can use to find assistance with housing, transportation, utility services, job training, food, childcare, and so on. He created a set of Facebook pages that list basic human services, names to contact, phone numbers to use, and active links to click on for clients to contact resources directly. The supervisor valued his contribution enough to assign someone to maintain the site even after Mohamed graduated.

6.2.2 When You’ve Met Your Goals

Some interns reach the point where they feel they have met the goals that were set down in the original educational agreement and have time to do more. Of course, it is wise to make sure you have met those goals before discussing the situation with your supervisor. Take a moment to make sure all expectations have been met and then try creating a goal or set of them you think would help you grow while also offering something of value to the agency. Next, approach the supervisor with a tentative plan. If the supervisor feels you are ready, and if there is no longer a need for you to continue to perform your current duties, you may be able to take the next step in your professional development.

Every person with whom you have contact may be a source of education and opportunity. Getting to know others within the agency allows you to discuss career interests with them and learn about career possibilities associated with their roles at the agency. For example, you could offer to help others in their work or create new tasks to take things into your own hands when there is nothing to do or when your jobs have become routine. Taking the initiative in learning about the agency and the services it provides often makes a good impression and opens new doors. One intern, Rosetta, worked at a substance abuse center. In her down time, she did research on other agencies in surrounding counties because she saw that clients often move from county to county. Consequently, Rosetta identified, compiled, and printed out a list of AA/NA meeting schedules for each county so clients would have the opportunity to continue to attend meetings after they moved.

6.2.3 Learning Agreements and Contracts

Your college, the placement site, or both may have certain legal obligations or routine requirements that must be met. One of them, for example, may be the need for a formal legal agreement between your educational institution and the placement site. Another one could be a written plan detailing such things as who you will be working with, what duties you will be performing while at the site, and the educational objectives you, the site, and your instructor feel are important for you to master.

One of the most empowering ways to achieve your goals is to draw up an internship or learning agreement. A learning agreement is often developed in written form so that the college, agency, supervisor, and student are all quite literally on the same page in regard to expected duties, requirements, and objectives. Another benefit of a written agreement is it allows you to track progress and provides you standing if the agency points you in directions you did not intend or agree to go. In other words, these agreements are better handled by spelling them out on paper so that they can be used as a guide to help create a good internship plan and to maintain this focus throughout the internship experience. In this sense, the internship agreement is like a contract that you may refer to throughout the process.

Here’s an example of what a learning agreement could include:

• your expected duties
• your work hours
• your supervisor

When creating your learning agreement, be sure to use the SMART goal strategy discussed earlier in this chapter. This contract may also spell out limitations to the student’s activities, and who will be providing liability insurance for the student while on site. If these matters are not spelled out, you should talk to both the supervisor and your instructor about them.

Clear contracts provide the foundations for a rewarding internship experience. Consequently, your goals will also be reviewed by supervisors and agencies who will have some sound ideas and suggestions regarding your expectations and limitations. Sometimes they even see more potential in an intern than the student does. This situation can create the opportunity to grow beyond your expectations.

Accordingly, sometimes it is best to modify an agreement. In that case, changes should be approved by the intern, the supervisor, and the instructor. Occasionally, a college or site will not use a contract but have only a verbal agreement with the intern. Although this situation isn’t the best, at least you can document what you agree to do, and not do, and then discuss that with your instructor.

Although rare, sometimes an internship does not work out well for a variety of reasons. For example, there may be a sudden change in supervisors or insurmountable interpersonal conflicts. Though no one wants to see things go in this direction, I’ve found alternatives, sometimes even a new site, without penalizing the student. Your instructor may also find helpful ways of dealing with this situation if you bring it up to them.