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Just did an intake session, observed by one of the therapists in my building. Afterward, I asked him for feedback and he spent almost ten minutes telling me all the things I did well. Not a single critique (other than he did interject with a clarifying question I missed as I did the intake, which I had asked him to do beforehand). Ten minutes of specific “I liked when you said/did this...” and “It really worked well when you did/said...”
I really, really needed that.
Update on the intern I have this semester...
When she was “brought on” as my intern, I made it very clear that her work was going to be VAWA focused (dating and domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault and rape), as it specifically applies to colleges and universities. She would be writing a post for our office’s blog twice a month on something pertaining to those topics.
So far she has given me:
A post about Dance Moms, delivered at the end of January. (This was her “sample writing piece,” so I’ll give her half a pass on it not being related to the VAWA stuff.)
A post about the negative stereotypes of African-American Women on Television, in mid-February. (Great topic, but not what she was asked to write about - we did still publish it.)
A post on the Wage Gap in the US, in mid-March. (It was Women’s History Month, she was super excited about an article she found, so I went with it.)
An idea to write about Disney Princesses, which she decided not to do after I asked her to find a way to relate the topic back to gendered-violence and college campuses, especially since it was, by now, Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
A post about how college campuses deal with reports of sexual assault, which I had to heavily edit because she was misquoting things left and right and including incredibly false numbers, delivered about a week ago.
None of these were given to me without copious spelling, punctuation, and syntax errors. I always had to edit it and send it back to her to make the changes.
And now she is asking me for suggestions for her next post topic.
It’s finals week. I think we’re done.
(All this to say, lesson learned. Don’t just blindly accept someone as an intern because your boss said she was a “good student.” Don’t just accept that you need an intern because your boss thinks that you need one. (Especially when that boss is about to leave for a new job.) Set up firm guidelines that state the type of topics they will write about and ensure that the intern knows what that means, or at least has a base level understanding. Create a calendar that details when rough drafts need to be submitted and when final edits are due. And be clear that it is THEIR job to come up with the topics, since THEY are the social media intern. This is not the place for hand-holding.)
Okay potential intern of mine, you personally sought out this organization for an internship, which would lead me to believe that there is some reason you want an internship in the first place. If you keep answering questions regarding your specific goals for the internship and the skills you hope to attain/develop while you are here with, "Oh, I don't know...I just want experience" I will not be able to help you.
I'm having a very serious, "HELP ME, HELP YOU" moment with this girl.
