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The Successful Internship-Transformation and Empowerment. H. Frederick Sweitzer and Mary A. King. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. 1999. 218 pages. $27.95.
This book is designed to assist students, faculty members, and field supervisors involved with internships in human service organizations, although the authors state that it should be of relevance to internships in other work settings as well. The authors have been associated with supervising interns for many years, and the book is a result of the knowledge they have gained from their experiences. The book is based on two main ideas. The first is that students need to understand themselves if they are to undertake a successful internship. The second idea is that students tend to go through specific stages in their internships, and recognition of the challenges involved in these different stages help to make internships successful learning experiences.
Chapter 1 briefly clarifies possible purposes of an internship. Internships can give students opportunities to ( 1 ) integrate and apply course materials, (2) understand the relationship between theory and practice, (3) develop skills introduced in the classroom, (4) receive a realistic introduction to the world of professional work, and (5) evaluate and clarify their educational and occupational goals. Internships are well-defended as an important opportunity for students to learn through experience.
This chapter also suggests that the faculty supervisor and interns should meet in a seminar, where challenges and problems of internships are addressed so that students can engage in problembased learning. This seminar is essential because it helps improve learning when interns "come together as a community of learners" (p. 11). Instructors are urged to require interns to keep a reflective journal, which describes what happens in the internships as well as the students' thoughts and feelings about their experiences. Such a journal could be divided into four categories that describe (1) the knowledge acquired, (2) skills that are being developed, (3) noticeable personal growth,...