LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The internship is a valuable tool for personal, professional, and civic development. Agencies seek interns to assist in helping them develop into professionals, but agencies also depend on interns to supplement the work that they do. What other effects might the internship experience create? Mallory, Cox, and Panos (2012) studied the impact that BSW interns had on agencies. In this Discussion, you consider the effects that you as an intern and the agency may have on each other.

LEARNING RESOURCES

Required Readings

Sweitzer, H. F., & King, M. A. (2019). The successful internship: Personal, professional, and civic development in experiential learning(5th ed.). Cengage. 

Chapter 1, “The Big Picture” (pp. 1–26)

Walden University. (2017a). Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) field education manualLinks to an external site..Available from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=81877&p=…

• Focus on the topics of roles and responsibilities in the “Field Education” section.

To locate and download the Field Education Manual, click on the link referenced above. Then click on the “Field Education Manual” tab to find the applicable document.

Walden University. (2017b). BSW Field orientationLinks to an external site. [Webinar]. Available from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=81877&p=…

• To locate and view the “BSW Field Orientation” webinar, click on the link referenced above. Then click on the “Orientation Webinars” tab to find the applicable webinar.

Mallory, D. B., Cox, S. E., & Panos, P. T. (2012). A participatory outcome evaluation on the impact of BSW interns on agenciesLinks to an external site..Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 32, 502–517. doi:10.1080/08841233.2012.719854

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Identify two learning goals you expect as an intern.

Identify two expectations that agencies may have for you.

Determine what resources and support you will need to meet the learning goals you identified.