Community Partner Guidebook

Thank you for your interest in the Family Studies and Human Development Service Learning program. We always welcome community partners who are excited about teaching and mentoring our students.

The information on this site will help you create a positive learning and teaching environment for students and staff alike. It includes expectations for you and for students, and helpful tips for working with college students. There are also forms and assignments to familiarize you with student responsibilities. We hope you will find it helpful! Please choose from the following links to navigate the guidebook.

What is a Service Learning Internship?

Service learning is a teaching method that supports students to learn and apply academic, social, and personal skills to improve the community, promote personal growth, and become better citizens. Service learning recognizes that people learn best by applying knowledge and theory to practice. Students do this by serving the community, while learning from experienced service providers and from the clients and community members themselves.

The Division of Family Studies and Human Development, offers a service learning internship. The internship helps students develop personal and professional competencies by working with community human service organizations. Participants are FSHD majors and minors considering careers in counseling, teaching, social services, family law, and related areas.

Interns earn university credit for working at their placement organization and completing academic coursework that is rooted in the service learning principles of reflection, demonstration, and reciprocity. Students are encouraged to think critically about social issues in the context of their field experience. Students may complete 1-2 semesters at the same internship site.

Students may enroll for 2-6 units in fall, spring, or summer semesters. Interns are expected to work a total of 45 hours per 1 university unit. Interns will be expected to:

• Work at their placement organization each week on a schedule to be arranged with the site supervisor
  
• Complete course assignments as outlined in the course syllabus
  
• Participate in all of the 2-hour internship seminars, to be held on designated Friday mornings four times throughout the semester
  

Expectations for Sites

The Division of Family Studies and Human Development develops relationships with community organizations to provide high quality, professional internships that combine academic coursework with community-based learning and service. We strive to help students think critically about issues facing society, and to make these issues personally meaningful. We believe that if students are provided with the right amount of challenge and support, they will excel. As a measure of reciprocity, we want students to share their knowledge and skills to further the goals of our community partners.

We hope that our community partners will support students in achieving their learning goals by observing the following expectations:

Provide a mentor. Designate a full-time professional staff member who has time to supervise the intern. The intern should be organizationally placed near the site supervisor, to aid in observation of, and participation in, a wide range of activities.

Provide a professional atmosphere conducive to learning. Be responsive to student questions and concerns. Provide a time and place to discuss what the intern is seeing and doing at the site and with clients.

Provide a structured experience. Focused projects with visible outcomes keep students on track, interested, and motivated. A mutually agreed upon schedule of regular hours and/or meeting times will help provide structure. Intern work assignments should be educational and challenging, as well as useful for the organization. The intern should benefit from exposure to as much of the organization during her or his stay as is feasible. The intern should not be assigned routine office or clerical work, unless such work is a necessary part of a more responsible assignment.

Consider the student's timeframe. Service learning students are expected to complete their hours within a one-semester (15-week) period. Interns typically work a total of 135 hours, or 9 hours per week. Students who do not complete their hours either earn a lower grade or must complete their work in the next semester.

Provide ongoing supervision and offer constructive feedback. By accepting an intern, the community partner recognizes that it shares responsibility for the success of the internship. The intern will rely on the agency's active participation and support, and will expect to receive assistance, advice, and guidance.

Contact the Service Learning Coordinator. The agency supervisor should contact the Service Learning Coordinator with questions or concerns as they arise. This will help the student and you to continue to benefit from service learning.

Creating an Internship at Your Organization

Community Partners as Educators
Community partners do more than supervise students. You are also a teacher and a mentor, helping interns learn about the work you do. Students will learn not only the "whats" and "hows" of your work, but the "whys" as well. Students may have never been exposed to the issues and people that you see every day, and will need your guidance, support, and wisdom to help them learn. Also, students are earning academic credit for learning through their service efforts. Your help is essential in encouraging them to think about what their experience means to them. You can help students make these connections between their experiences and their academic learning.

Creating a Quality Experience
Some professionals look forward to having an intern do the parts of their work that they dislike. This is not an intern's job! An internship is about experiential learning. Interns should be considered paraprofessionals, or players on the farm team, if you will. An internship is a partnership among student, community professional, and university. A successful internship requires thoughtful planning and follow-through.

What do you need?
When designing opportunities for service learning interns, consider your organizational needs and capacity. Think about how students might help your organization, and what resources are needed to support the intern. Think about who else within the organization should know about service learning, and who can benefit. Questions to consider include:

• What are your organization's current and potential projects and resources?
  
• Are there tasks that you and your staff are now doing that could be divided up and given to one or more students?
  
• Does your organization have the time to support an intern?
  
• Is there a project that you've always wanted to do but never had the time to organize?
  
• What might be the benefits to your organization from students engaging in service activities?
  
• How will students benefit from working with your organization?
  
• How will you know that having service learning students was worthwhile?

Design positions that are appealing to students
Positions that carry some degree of responsibility and involve contact with clients are the best for students. Positions that are interesting, challenging, and rewarding will best engage students. At the beginning of the semester, student and mentor should outline tasks, goals, and resources for achieving said goals. Students should spend time doing tasks that will provide them with a realistic picture of the field.

Intern Orientation
Success depends on how well students' expectations fit with their experiences. The more structure, preparation, and training students receive at the organization, the more confident they will be in their work. Giving students a good overview of the organization, preparing them for the tasks they will complete, and what they should expect will help them understand how their service fits into the big picture.

Topics to include in your orientation:

• Organization mission and history
  
• Population(s) served
  
• Primary programs and projects of the organization
  
• Organizational structure
  
• Safety policies and procedures
  
• Policies, organizational norms, and dress code
  
• Site tour
  
• Introductions to staff, clients, and volunteers
  
• Scheduling
  
• How to work with clients
  
• What you hope students will learn while working with your organization
  
• What you expect from students collectively and individually

Beginning Work with Interns
Interns come to your organization excited, scared, and usually inexperienced! Check yourself on assumptions that you may make about working with interns. Some common assumptions are as follows:

Interns know how to learn from observing and listening.
REALITY: Yours is probably a new environment for the student. S/he needs help to make the adjustment. Talking through an experience and checking in is important.

Interns will initiate and ask questions.
REALITY: Interns often don't know what to ask. They may feel intimidated by the pace of the organization or by daily demands on the supervisor. Students often say, "my supervisor is too busy, I don't want to bother her/him!"

Interns will understand the opportunity they have and will take advantage.
REALITY: Often the intern does not know enough about the organization, its mission, its resources, or its people to recognize opportunities and take advantage of them without some guidance and assistance.

Interns will be eager and enthusiastic.
REALITY: Often they are very enthusiastic! But sometimes enthusiasm and commitment are not what they should be. Some students may be used to a lot of free time, parties, variable class hours, and relaxed attendance policies. Others may be under additional stress because they are working, have families, or are taking other classes while interning.