Blog Post 5: Looking Back

I can’t believe my internship at Wigs 4 Kids is over! I am really going to miss working with such sunny people every single day. Mostly I am going to miss the kids that I worked with in therapy every week. Although my internship was only for 6 weeks, I still got very attached to them. The improvements they made in this short span were incredible, and I’m extremely disappointed that I won’t get to be a part of their journeys anymore.

On Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to take part in play therapy with Corey; during play therapy, the therapist plays with the patient and slowly begins to integrate serious questions, although the child does not notice and is an open book. This technique is used with younger patients with the parents present but not involved. I was so excited to see this form of therapy at work, but since this was the first play therapy session with this particular child, the session was more focused on play than therapy (to get her comfortable with playing with us). That was disappointing, but I still got to play with Barbies for an hour!

 

This internship has allowed me to grow immensely in my verbal and leadership skills, although I still have further improving to do. I think that my liberal arts education only prepared me halfway for this experience. My classes have taught me how to write clearly and concisely. I have been taught how to be factual and support my claims with evidence. However, such writing was useless at Wigs 4 Kids. I was frequently assigned to write e-mails and letters to our Ambassadors or to corporate sponsors. Factual, statement-filled writing was not appropriate in these situations. I was expected to write warmly and from the heart. My classes have not prepared me for that.

However, my liberal arts education did help me be open-minded, which is something a student of the liberal arts has to be since his or her classes are so diverse. At Wigs 4 Kids it is very important to be open-minded and flexible, as the tasks and projects that need to be done are various. My education has also taught me how to work well with people. At my internship, everything I did was with other people- adults and children. I felt very comfortable doing group projects with volunteers as well. While my liberal arts education did not prepare me completely for my internship, I definitely used some skills that I learned in the classroom during my experience.

 

My experience at Wigs 4 Kids has been a rollercoaster. I have had a lot of bad days, but mostly good days. I never expected to grow so attached to the kids, volunteers, and staff that I met along the way. I have learned so much from everyone and I’m so thankful to have been given this opportunity. I can’t wait to see what life has in store for me next!