The Successful Internship: Transformation and Empowerment in Experiential Learning

THE SUCCESSFUL INTERNSHIP offers students more than just a resource on how to find a position or how to interview; it addresses the concerns, emotions, needs, and unique personal challenges that are the essence of an internship or field experience. The authors describe in detail the path of change students will find themselves embarking on and the challenges they will face along the way, and they provide clear, concrete tools that build the foundation for students' successful field/practicum experience. The book's five-stage model of the internship process-anticipation, disillusionment, confrontation, competence, and culmination-places the material in a meaningful framework that lends structure to students' understanding of the work they will be doing.

H. Frederick Sweitzer is Associate Provost and Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. Fred has over 30 years' experience in human services as a social worker, administrator, teacher, and consultant. He has placed and supervised undergraduate interns for 20 years and developed the internship seminar at the University of Hartford. Fred brings to his work a strong background in self-understanding, human development, experiential education, service learning, civic engagement, professional education, and group dynamics. He is on the editorial boards for the journals Human Service Education and Human Services Today, and has published widely in the field.

Mary A. King, Ed.D. is Professor Emerita at Fitchburg State University where she was faculty and coordinator of field placements in Behavioral Sciences, supervised graduate and undergraduate interns in professional studies and liberal arts programs, and instructed service-learning. She has over 30 years experience working with interns in the field and on campus and brings to her academic work backgrounds in teaching, criminal justice, consultation and counseling psychology, holding several professional licenses. Mary has published in the fields of experiential and human service education and has served on national and regional boards, most recently that of the National Society for Experiential Education, where she currently oversees the NSEE Experiential Education Academy.