Summer Public Service Internship

Hey All!
So New Orleans is HOT AS EVER! Its 85+ everyday and only have rained twice since I got back. I have been having a great time. I started my summer internship on the 7th. It is so cool! Let me give you a little background information first.

After Katrina, Tulane revamped their entire core curriculum. One thing that they added was a public service requirement. You take 2 public service classes before you graduate, each which has a 40 hour service requirement. I think this requirement is awesome. Going to school in a city like New Orleans where there is so much help needed, especially since after the storm, it is a great way to give back to a city that gives us so much and becomes our second home for four years.

In addition to being able to fill your service requirement through a class with outside service hours, the Center for Public Service (CPS) also does summer internships, and that's where my internship comes in! At the end of last semester I met with Craig, an advisor at the CPS and he told me about all the partnerships that they had with local institutions that relate to my study area of Psychology. Long story short - I ended up picking the CARE center, which is the New Orleans Child Advocacy Center connected to the Childrens Hospital.

For my internship, I will work 70 hours, complete an online seminar about Public Service in the Health Sciences and get 3 credits! The same as any other regular class at Tulane! In addition to the credits and filling a requirement, I am also getting great experience in my major area that will help so much when applying to Graduate schools.

So I have been working at my internship for 2 weeks now and I love it. I tell all my friends that I feel like I am on Law and Order:SVU. My boss however would hate that I make that comparison haha, but for most people I think it gives a good idea about what we do there. We do the forensic medical exams as well as interviews for abused children throughout New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. This next week, I am going to get to work with the Psychologist they have on staff who does therapy sessions with victims of abuse. I am really excited about that. It will give me great hands on experience into the clinical work that I am interested in going to Graduate School for.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post from my internship because its not really ethical to take pictures there, but hopefully at the end of it we will go out to dinner or something to celebrate and I can post pictures from that! ha, I can hope right??

Other than that summer in New Orleans is good! I am trying to use my AC as little as possible to keep the energy bill low but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Hope you are having a great summer too!

Kelly