Name: Sophie Goldstein
Class Year: 2020
Major: Psychology
Hometown: New York City
Internship Organization: The Quad Manhattan
Job Title: Psychosocial Intern
Location: New York City
What’s happening at your internship?
At my internship, we have just welcomed the kids to camp and introduced our expectations for the summer. I have been paired with three 5-year-old children to create individualized psychosocial plans for them and have begun tracking their progress so far. I am constantly reminding the kids of their individual goals and helping them to get closer to being able to do them on their own. Fortunately, I have been able to use my varied experience in psychology classes and labs to know the appropriate ways to communicate with young children and the most effective ways to convey the information in a concise and informative way for 5 year olds. Besides the goal-setting, with my co-counselors, we are busy taking the kids to different activities and on various field trips. We’re all super excited to go to the transit museum next week!
Why did you apply for this internship?
I applied for this internship because I knew I wanted to continue working with young children but in a more psychosocial and educational setting. As someone who is interested in education and psychology, and specifically early childhood development, this internship provides me with some answers on different professional roles in this field and the various ways one can involve themselves. As much as I am learning from the kids, I have been lucky to learn a lot from the psychosocial staff who have imparted career advice and general life advice generously.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
So far, my favorite part of the internship has been playing with and participating in activities with the kids. They are so much fun to be around and super energetic. I know that I have always enjoyed acting silly and playing different games with young kids but I am pleasantly surprised each time! Even though I’m exhausted at the end of the day and my feet are aching, I know that I’m making a positive impact in the kids’ lives by providing some psychosocial framework and more importantly, some fun!
What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?
I learned on the first day that the psychology world is very small! When I first walked into orientation, I saw two other Bryn Mawr students, my old childhood friend, met two students from Villanova, and someone who graduated from Ursinus. Who would have figured there would be so many familiar faces? Another, more serious, thing I did not expect to learn was nonviolent crisis intervention and in-the-moment collaborative problem solving. I have been using different techniques to calm an upset child as well as teach a new expected behavior to them, which is something that I will be able to use for the rest of my life!