Reflection Paper: Internship Spring 2023

Jasmine Armstrong

KINS 4306: Internship in Public

Dr. Kaninjing

17 April 2023
 Introduction

My name is Jasmine Armstrong and I am currently a senior undergraduate majoring

in public health. For my last semester, I have had the honor and privilege of interning at

Stepping Stone Child Advocacy and Sexual Assault Center for the course of sixteen weeks.

My time here has been nothing short of incredible, I've learned so much and have made so

many connections. To start out, Stepping Stone is a nonprofit, government funded

organization that started serving victims in 1999. At the beginning, Stepping stone only

provided services to victims of child abuse and neglect, but over the years they have been

able to broaden their services to now serve both adult and child victims. Stepping stone has

two office locations, one in Eastman and one in Dublin and serves individuals in the Dublin

and Oconee Judicial circuits. The main counties we serve are Laurens, Johnson, Treutlen,

Twiggs, Dodge, Bleckley, Montgomery, Pulaski, Wheeler, and Telfair. Our center is quite

unique in its nature as it is the only CAC in middle Georgia that consists of an all female

staff. This is one of the main reasons I was drawn to this site. Our staff consists of seven

members. Brooke Woods is our executive director, Emily Brookshire is over the interns as

well as our client services coordinator, Anthea Poulton is our Sexual Assault Nurse

Examiner, Madison Bloodworh is our Victims Outreach Specialist, Macie LaFavor is our

Voctim Advocacy Specialist, Courtney Lamb is a licensed master social worker and

counselor, and Dawn Lane is another Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner in training. It's a small

staff, but they work together so well and create such a comfortable environment for the

clients that come through and obtain services. The mission of Stepping Stone is to lessen the

trauma suffered by individuals who have been abused or assaulted by providing evaluation in

a safe, caring environment and to encourage collaboration of services for the benefit of the
victims and their non-offending family members. Stepping stone provides a variety of

services. Our services for victims range from support services such as advocacy, forensic

medical exams, and forensic interviews. Our mental health services include referrals to

community counselors as well as support and peer groups. Lastly, we also offer training and

educational programs such as our young scholars tutoring program that we provide. All of the

services we provide to our clients are free of charge which is a huge benefit to the community

we serve.

Description of Experiences

My role as an intern ranged from many tasks and responsibilities. What I love about

this center and the staff is that they encourage us to try our hand at everything. My role on a

daily basis ranged from client intake and documentation, to observing different types of

interviews and providing follow up services and calls as need be. I also spent a lot of time

sitting in on counseling sessions with our clients, planning and coordinating outreach and

promotional events, and case management as well as billing. There was no specific role that I

served which I really appreciated so that I could grow my skills in all different areas when it

comes to possibly pursuing a career in this field. Our intern task list also consisted of a series

of training we needed to complete in order to serve as a victim advocate and a mandated

reporter. These certifications were amazing to be able to obtain for future endeavours in my

public health professional career. There are so many “bests” when I look back on my time

spent here. One of the best things I got to be really hands on was our teen peer support group.

This group is for our female clients ages 14-17 who are survivors of sexual assault, and we

meet every other Thursday for about an hour. We have two girls in our group this session and

it has been amazing to be able to connect with these girls and learn about them and practice
coping strategies and provide support. It was really an honor to be able to not only be a part

of this group, but be able to lead it. I was really nervous about the start of this group because I

knew in time, Emily wanted me and Megan to be able to lead certain aspects and parts of our

sessions and that seemed so far-fetched. In time, Emily really had us so prepared and

comfortable when it came around to us leading the group. It was so cool and I’m so happy

that I was able to be a part of that. I'm really going to miss our girls. Another favorite for me

was surprisingly, doing intake with the families. This was challenging but also became

something I really enjoyed. I was so nervous the first few times I did intake by myself and

even when I was doing it supervised. I remember my first few times and I was pretty bad at

it. There would be parts I wouldn't explain thoroughly enough and where my nerves could

definitely be heard, but over time it became a habit and I really leaned into that time to

connect with the family. It became an opportunity for me to also provide support and

encouragement to supportive family members. Sometimes it became hard when some

families that came in were not supportive of the victim and I found myself in some tough

situations, but the staff always came through if it became too much to handle. In my time

here I wish that I had gotten more time to spend in actual court with our clients and get to

experience that part a little more, but that just comes along with how legal processes go when

trying to go to trial, most times the offenders take a plea deal at the very last minute.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

Upon much reflection, this internship exceeded my expectations. The staff here is so

wonderful and truly cares for every individual that steps in our center even long after they

have received services. I have learned so much about the legal system when it comes to

fighting against sexual assault and other forms of abuse and the way every step is essential
especially on our end. I've learned how to conduct interviews and how to serve as a victim

advocate. I've also learned so much about how to hold myself in tough situations and

environments. The work and the cases we come across are very heavy, and it can be so hard

to conduct yourselves in those situations but that is something I learned from being around

the staff and taking time to step away if necessary. The time I spent here was wonderful.

They were so open to having us and hearing all of our ideas, especially when it comes to my

project specifically. I pride our supervisor in the way that she supports the creative ideas and

concepts I come up with whether it be for social media or planning an event. One of my ideas

coming in was to bring a clothesline project to the Middle Georgia Campus and Emily loved

this idea and pushed to help me make it happen. That is just one of many ways she has

supported me in my time here. Emily was the best supervisor I could have ever asked for. She

not only leads well, but she is such an inspiration. She pushes us past our comfort zone

because she sees so much potential in us, even more than I see the potential in myself. She

trains us very well and is always open to hearing suggestions and answering all of my

sometimes stupid questions, no matter how many I have. I would and already have

recommended this site to future interns, the environment there and the amount of knowledge

and connections that can be made are infinite. I am really going to miss my time here. I

would definitely consider a career in this field at some point! I would love to take it on on

more of a global scale whatever that would look like but yes, I love the work I've gotten to do

here and the career environment for sure.

Internship Preparedness

I actually commend the college of health sciences and all of my public health

professors for the ways in which they equipped me for this role. It was so cool to take
concepts that we learned about like social determinants of health and apply them to the way

we provide service and care to our clients and the community we serve. I also was able to

apply so much cultural competence to the way I approached and even listened to clients who

would walk through our environment. One thing I wasn't as prepared for or even thought I

would need preparation for was being a female intern in a completely female run center. As

mentioned before, Stepping Stone is the only center in Middle Georgia that is completely

female run. With this in mind we work a lot with law enforcement which is a heavily male

dominated space. There were moments where I learned so much from our staff on the way

they would stand their ground and the confidence in which they would hold themselves when

working with law enforcement. That is something I think can only be learned with practice,

but I truly learned so much about how to approach things and address a room as a female

when working with men who still think women are inferior. The course I think that helped

me the most in my approach to this internship was community health, health promotion and

program planning, and environmental health. These classes prioritize actively working as a

public health professional. The college of health and human performance in my opinion is the

best college we have on campus, all of the professors genuinely care about what they do and

training the students to actively step out into the field. I wish that every major had a last

semester of an internship because it has helped and equipped me in indescribable ways as I

look to the future.

Internship Performance

There is so much that I have learned and skills I have acquired over my time at

Stepping Stone. I've learned skills such as case management, client intake, and what it means

to be an advocate on a case. I also grew so much in my technology skills and communication

as it pertains to sharing information on social media and presenting to individuals in the

community. I learned about the importance of using clean and clear fonts when it comes to

sharing information via social media, as well as appropriate language to use so that the whole

demographic understands the information I am trying to get across. I was very satisfied with

the way I performed on assignments and tasks delegated to us. It was really encouraging

getting both positive and negative feedback on the work I was producing. Time management

in an internship setting is a whole other thing to tackle. I definitely struggled the first month

getting adjusted to a new schedule and getting work done outside of that. I am very proud of

the way I was able to handle it all after a month of adjusting and it definitely prepared me for

life post graduation. I would rate my work done here as a seven, and I am very proud of that.

I think some skills I need to sharpen are continuing to manage my time well and just my

confidence in what I am doing. Those are some skills I think that would really help me

further in my public health career.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

This internship has impacted me on every level imaginable. Not only do I feel more

confident in furthering my career as a public health professional, I also have some great

connections now at Stepping Stone and amazing references for the future. It has also

impacted the way I hold myself as a woman in a professional setting. I've learned to hold

command of a room and lead as a female even when people doubt you. My time spent here

also definitely encouraged me to continue my education in the public health field and get my

masters. I've gained so much insight from working with this community. I learned a lot of

barriers to health and accessing services and the way to approach vulnerable populations. I've

also learned how to talk to all sorts of demographics whether the client was a young child or a

grown adult. Lastly, it was also cool to get an insight to the unique way females work in this
type of setting and the way in which Emily and the rest of the staff approach and work with

vulnerable populations with such drive, empathy, and determination. I have loved every

minute interning here and I am going to miss it so muc.