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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SPRING INTERNSHIP CAITLIN CORMANY
Introduction
Through Messiah Colleges Career and Professional Development Center, I was offered an
internship at Mechanicsburg Middle School in the school counseling department under the
supervision of Ms. Meg Rieley. Meg has been a middle school counselor for over twenty years
and currently oversees the seventh graders at Mechanicsburg. My internship working alongside
Meg began in mid-January and ended fittingly with Ms. Rieleys colossal Career Day event on
April 30th. When I started at my internship site, I had no idea that the schools Career Day would
become my main internship project and a huge passion of mine as the spring semester
progressed.
While at my work site, I took on various roles closely related to the duties of a school counselor.
Although they were not officially written up until about a month after I began, my learning
objectives and work responsibilities were made evident to me during the interview process. My
main objective was to learn the specific interpersonal and managerial tasks of a school counselor
as it relates to a career path for the young adolescent and how those roles affect faculty, students,
and parents. As a way to reach this objective, I met with a group of six to eight students during
lunch time to better understand their needs and build up rapport. In addition, Ms. Rieley invited
me to attend countless meetings where I was able to interact with administrators, teachers, fellow
school counselors, and members of the community. Some gatherings were more casual, such as
weekly meetings in which the counselors discussed day to day concerns. Other meetings were
much more formal involving employees from Children and Youth Services or higher-up
administration. A final way that I reached my objective, specifically the career component, was
through administering the Holland Career Assessment to seventh grade students and studying the
Career Education Work Standards through the PDE website.
My internship objectives were successfully reached through open communication and constant
collaboration with my supervisor. We met weekly to review my progress on Career-day related
projects and to discuss what other opportunities that I could get involved in while at the school. I
also kept my Work Reflection Log up to date to manage the specific tasks expected for me to
complete and track personal progress. I was able to determine how successful I kept up with my
main work responsibilities once the Career Day event occurred because the majority of my
internship energies went in to preparing presenters, students, and teachers for that specific day.
Work/Projects
I have been fortunate enough that Ms. Rieley not only encouraged me to dabble in, but to also
invest my whole self into the Career Day project. I worked on several bits and pieces that
contributed to the event, whether it was meeting with a new student to create a Career Day

schedule or contacting over 100 people asking them to present that day. Each work day was a
new adventure but always an enjoyable experience. A typical work day for me started with
checking my employee email and looking for any correspondence from my supervisor, the
counseling secretary, or presenters in regards to Career day changes or cancellations. For
instance, if there was an email from a presenter asking about what time to show up and what
technical equipment the school has available, I would know this information and immediately
reply. However, sometimes I would not have the answer to a question and would need to contact
my supervisor in order to appropriately address the individuals needs. After checking my email,
I would make any necessary changes to the Career Day Access database. The Career Day
database is a complex system that holds each student and teachers individualized event
schedules as well as hundreds of contact cards that correspond to Career Day presenters who
participated in the past or have interest in participating for this year. The system takes some
getting used to but serves as the hub for the entire event. Changes that I would make to the
database might include making a note that a presenter has cancelled, filling out a students
incomplete schedule, or checking how many students are in each presentation session.
For my lunch break, I would head to the cafeteria to search for a table of students to get to know.
I never had a specific type of student I was looking for because I wanted to get to know the
diverse student population at Mechanicsburg. Once I picked a table, ranging from six to eight
students, they would follow me to a classroom where we ate and casually interacted. Often I
would have an icebreaker game handy, in case conversation died down. This experience allowed
me to acquaint myself with several students on a deeper level and to serve as another trusted
adult figure during the school year.
Afternoons at my internship usually involved meeting with the middle school principal, seventh
grade teachers, or fellow counselors. These opportunities gave me the chance to sit back and
observe the inner-workings of the school and how the school counselor takes on a more
managerial role. I have learned the most about counselor responsibilities from these frequent
interactions with various school staff. After the meeting, my day ended by calling down students
to schedule for Career Day or to provide them with permission slips for the event if they had
been selected to go on a special trip.
New skills I have learned during my time at the middle school include improved communication
skills, increased knowledge in using Microsoft Access, and how the role of a school counselor is
so much more than therapy. After my experience I see a school counselor as one who maintains
healthy relationships with students and their families while planning interventions alongside an
interdisciplinary team to best improve student performance. This may seem like a concise job
description, but I have learned that it is a huge responsibility.

Learning
I have applied thinking about the long-term during my internship by giving my best effort on
every task that I was assigned. If my supervisor needed me to contact presenters or parent
volunteers, I would try and do so promptly and notify her of how the conversation went. Often I
tried to provide feedback to Meg so that I would create a memory of it somewhere if a problem
or confusion ever occurred. Ms. Rieley was such a great supervisor that I wanted to please her as
well as help make the school experience, specifically Career Day, go as smoothly as possible for
the students. Another way I focused on this long-term application to my future was to listen
intently at every meeting and absorb any information Meg gave me about the field. Such active
listening has prepared me for my future career and upcoming graduate school education.
I learned to understand unique student cultures while at the middle school. The school has a
large Middle Eastern population, and I was able to work with a handful of these students. They
each taught me some things about their special dress, home country, and family life through
lunch groups and one-on-one Career Day scheduling. I had never interacted with children from
this part of the world before, so it was definitely an enriching experience.
Phone etiquette was an objective in which I made huge leaps and bounds. Knowing how to talk
on the phone seems like common sense, but it is a challenge to keep a professional tone. My
generation is so used to texting that we have lost this crucial skill. I thankfully regained this skill
when I had to contact presenters and call to classrooms for students on a daily basis. I can attest
to the idea that practice makes perfect because my communication improved each day.
Creativity ended up being a challenging insight to master, but I believe I made some gains.
There were days when I did a lot of desk work, but there were many more days when Meg
encouraged me to step into the classroom or travel with her to conferencse. These moments
motivated me to think about how I can make a difference in the lives of my future students. I
have often thought about collaborating with administration to figure out innovative strategies that
would foster school-wide creativity! This is surely a dream that I will pursue in my future career.
With a week left of my internship, I can proudly say that I followed InternQubes tip to end
well. To be honest, there is not any time to slack off due to Career Day quickly approaching
and all the work that still needs to get done. In addition, I have also found that I prefer keeping
myself busy rather than waiting for my supervisor to tell me what to do next. Direction is nice,
but if I know that there is something that needs completed, I am more than eager to work at it.
Although I never thought I would create them, my internship notebook was filled with pages of
to-do lists that I created on a daily basis. I would typically write down tasks Meg requested that I
do throughout the day, notes during my hundreds of calls with Career Day presenters, or future
references for students who needed to be called down to my office at the end of the day. These
lists improved my organizational and time management skills.

Finally, I found it challenging to create a personal brand as an intern, but I did not let the label
of intern discourage me from taking appropriate risks. There were many days that Meg would
be busy in meetings, and I would have to take initiative and look for jobs that needed completed.
At the same time, I had to make smart decisions and to not over step my boundaries. Some
responsibilities are only appropriate for the school counselor or are tasks preferred to be done by
the counseling secretary. It was crucial for me to pay close attention to what jobs I was allowed
to do while still being independent enough to make small day to day decisions.
Future Plans
This internship has solidified my desire to further my education and become a school counselor.
I was fortunate enough to have been accepted to Shippensburg Universitys Graduate Studies
Program to pursue my Masters in school counseling. My internship supervisor, Meg Rieley was
a wonderful mentor who made me passionate about my career pathway. The projects I worked
on and observation time under Meg has persuaded me to go on to graduate school and earn the
necessary certification. I feel prepared for graduate school and future internships like this one
because I have learned unique managerial skills specific to the field that I would not have learned
in a college classroom.
Preparation/Recommendations
I felt prepared for my internship concerning how to understand a diverse group of students.
Messiahs psychology program has taught me a lot about particular personality characteristics,
intellectual disabilities, and cultural distinctions. These lessons gave me confidence to interact
with a variety of middle school students on deep, meaningful levels. Also, being enrolled in both
Psychological Testing and Counseling Skills provided me with a helpful background when I
observed meetings about students academic and/or behavioral issues.
The only recommendation I would make for my academic department in preparing students for
psychology-based internships is to remind students that psychology is a broad major. More
specifically, not all counseling is therapy. I expected much more therapy given to students by the
school counselor when in fact the school counselors role is much more career-driven and a
referral to outside mental health resources. An exploratory class for college freshman about the
variety of different careers in psychology would be helpful in directing students on what career
or education to pursue after graduation.