I'm majoring in Animal Behavior and Psychology. I chose to do an internship in the psychology program because my classes are heavily concentrated in animal behavior and I wanted to gain more experience in the psychology field. I chose to do my internship at Compeer. I began volunteering there in February. I was paired up with an individual diagnosed with a mental illness. As a volunteer I'm expected to be this individual's friend and role model. I've planned low cost activities for us, and the individual has as well. The individual is a native to Buffalo which I am not. The individual introduced me to the winterfest in downtown Buffalo. The individual also brought me the skating rink. I invited the individual to the Albright Knox museum on the first friday of the month when it was free. The individual had actually lived in the area in the past and was very familiar with the museum. I hope to bring my Compeer friend to the zoo this summer as well as bring the individual and their dog to a dog park.
This summer I will be working in the office at Compeer. They recently received a grant to provide activities to clients that have not been paired with a volunteer. The goal of the program is to create products that can be sold at local farmers markets in order to be sustainable. I have to plan meaningful activities that can be sold at farmers markets. I have to explain how the activites are meaningful to the clients and how it can help them gain skills that can be utilized on a daily basis. The first project we have initiated is sewing and creating eye bags. They are fabric bags filled with beans or flax seed that are meant to be placed over the eyes while trying to relax. Clients will learn fine motor skills while sewing the bags. They will also be able to bring the bags home and use them for relaxation. While trying to relax, the eye bags keep the eyes closed without the person having to try and keep their eyes closed. The small amount of pressure helps with relaxation as well. Ambitious hopes is that we can trade with yoga studios the eyes bags in return of free services provided to our clientelle.
11/29/2011
Over the summer my friend and I went to the zoo, went to a dog park with their dog, went to a community concert, my friend brought me to Tift nature preserve, and the last thing we did together was going bowling. A week after bowling, my friend decided to end our friendship. I had enjoyed our friendship very much. My friend had actually planned the concert which I enjoyed very much. They also came up with the idea to go to the Tift nature preserve. I brought a birding book and together we identified a couple species. I was happy to share my birding knowledge with my friend. Towards the end of the summer I attended the Compeer picnic in which I managed the sign in table as well as a couple games of bingo. Many of the people playing bingo were very serious about the game and I didn't know much about how it was played. Fortunately, a client of Compeer helped me through it and aided me in conducting a few games of bingo. I also attended a movie night with Compeer. I was paired up with a fairly new client who was a bit nervous about the event. We chose to see the Zookeeper together. I was very impressed with how much knowledge the client had about animals. I also enjoyed how uninhibited this individual was about laughing during the film.
I've finished my time at Compeer and am now assisting Dr. Bayer with a project. My internship at Compeer has given me experience working with a non-profit organization as well as exposed me to a variety of individuals with mental illness. This experience has allowed me interaction with mental illness that I hope to utilize in the future.
3/19/12
I have completed my hours for my internship after a long and difficult year. I very much enjoyed the project Dr. Bayer had assigned to me. I was to take videos of students interviewing internship supervisors and edit them so that they could be posted on the Psychology Departments website. The goal of the video postings is to show future internship students the supervisors and give the students a sense of what experiences the specific internship can provide. Because this was the first time this project was initiated, I had to provide instructions for future students on how to edit the videos. I enjoyed having to be meticulous about the instructions I was providing. I also enjoyed that I had to figure it all out on my own.
I finished my hours with Dr. Bayer because I was having difficulty accumulating hours at my original internship site. From the beginning of the internship, there was miss-communication about when I was to meet with my supervisor at the office. If my supervisor was not present at the office, there was nothing for me to do there and so I had to leave without fulfilling any hours. This occurred once or twice during the spring semester, but began occurring more and more throughout the summer until eventually I went an entire month without being able to complete any of my hours. I was frustrated that my internship had been going on for much longer than it was suppose to and so I asked Dr. Bayer if there was an alternative for me. Along with not being to fulfill my hours, my eye-bag project did not continue on as I had planned it. A meeting was never scheduled for clients to begin creating them, so it became myself and my supervisor creating the bags and selling them at a few functions. I attempted a few times to travel to yoga studios to propose an exchange of eye-bags for certificates to auction off to volunteers and clients. My attempts were hindered by confusion in communication. I attempted to begin another project like the eye-bags; I did not feel that I was supported in moving onto another project. I often times was instructed to file away papers, to make phone calls to clients and volunteers to remind them of upcoming events or other actions needed around the office. I attempted to help other people in the office so that when my supervisor wasn't available I could work with someone else. No one could provide me with any projects to keep me busy. In the end, it seemed as though there was no established protocol for interns. I did not like this lack of structure, lack of goals, and lack of providing consistent valuable field experiences.
