9.1 Chapter Overview
Ending an internship is a process, not just a single event that happens on the final day. The process of completing an internship can be both exciting and sad, meaning you may have mixed feelings about leaving. If so, that is known as “separation anxiety” and is entirely normal. In fact, having mixed feelings is often a sign of a good internship because, in that case, one is happy to move on but sad that many positive relationships may be ending. In this sense, the ending of an internship is more than just an end date. Internships often serve as a capstone of your learning that gives you a chance to show what you’ve learned and develop your professional and academic goals.
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
- Assess the practical and ethical importance of ongoing evaluation and reflection.
- Give and receive professional feedback.
- End professional relationships positively.
Preview of Key Terms
- Evaluation: any method of measuring performance at your position. This may include informal methods, such as check-ins or discussions, or more formal evaluations such as a report or grade.
- Self-advocacy: taking your knowledge and your goals and pursuing methods of meeting your needs.
- Self-reflection: time taken to review your experience and process what you learned.
- Termination: the act of ending a relationship. Termination in human services generally refers to the methods used by workers to end relationships with clients.
Chapter Overview Licenses and Attributions
“Chapter Overview” is adapted from Succeeding at Your Internship: A Handbook Written for and with Students by Christopher J. Mruk and John C. Moor, Bowling Green State University Libraries. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
A credit class in which students apply theory to practice by using what you have learned in coursework in a real-world setting with a supervisor/mentor who is invested in your growth and development (often also referred to as fieldwork or practicum).
any method of measuring performance at your position. This may include informal methods, such as check-ins or discussions, or more formal evaluations such a report or grade.