After being lead to believe that I had landed the internship at the Y, I received an email late on Friday, very curtly informing me that I " was not selected for the Y internship". It was one sentence. No salutation, no explanation, no thank you for expressing interest. To make matters worse, there was absolutely nothing I could do about not having an internship (which is supposed to begin on Sept. 18) over the weekend. I managed not to fall into a spiral of panic only by spiraling into depression. All I wanted to do all weekend was sleep.
This week began with a rush of exchanging e mails with my field coordinator, and the human resources dept at Excelsior (my job), and phone calls to a new list of agencies with potential internships. I was able to secure a fall back option for internship at Excelsior. I really do not want to do this, because my responsibilities as a first year intern would be nearly identical to what I do now. As I plan to continue to work there on a fill in basis throughout grad school, I don't want to do the SAME job, and not get paid for it. Plus, I know how to do my job. The whole point of internship is to do something new. As I've heard back from more and more agencies this week, I'm finding all internship positions are filled. Crapola.
There is however one placement that still has an open spot. It's with the Rocky Mountain MS Foundation Adult Day Program. They offer a multitude of classes for adults with MS, and some with brain injury (did not specify if it was anoxic brain injury or traumatic brain injury). My responsibilities there would include facilitating classes, running group therapy, and psycho-social support. From what I understand there is a lot of flexibility in the internship for me to design my own curriculum. This is a definite "pro" for the agency - as it maps on to my Hampshire background. What concerns me is that they focus so much on people with disabilities, and an older demographic. I'm not sure if this demographic is one that I want to work with. I'm trying to separate my fear of something new (I'm accustomed to working with at risk youth), and my reservations for working with a population that might not be all there - I've found I'm just better with a higher functioning demographic - at least in youth.
Perhaps this level of ambivalence and trepidation is a good indication that I should accept this placement? It could be a phenomenal learning experience.
