A Reflection on My Internship Goals

INTERNSHIP GOALS

Internship Goals

From the onset, it would be prudent to note that from a general perspective, I am happy with the progression of my goals. This is particularly the case on the ‘engagement’ and ‘accountability’ fronts. In as far as ‘engagement’ is concerned, I was able to actively connect and interact with colleagues and instructors in more meaningful formats. In so doing, I also further enhanced my interpersonal skills and capabilities by promoting my cultural competence. Cultural competence has been defined by Pope-Davis, Coleman, and Heesacker (2003) as the “ability to understand, appreciate and interact with people from cultures or belief systems different from one's own” (89). This way, I was able to appreciate the perspectives of others even more, and thus benefit from their insights. I also promoted the learning of others by sharing insights gathered from my readership and exploration of diverse peer-reviewed resources.

When it comes to ‘accountability’, I made peace with the fact that knowledge acquisition is a collaborative process. I discovered that in the past, I have not been very accepting of negative feedback. Thus, for positive change to occur in this case, I had to do some soul searching and address the factors that trigger my adverse responses to negative feedback. I also gathered some crucial insights about the embrace of feedback from a book titled, The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well. This way, I became more accepting of the perspectives of others and how they could be used to promote or advance professional effectiveness.

In the final analysis, it should be noted that I encountered some challenges on the ‘growth’ front. This is more so the case with regard to engagement in structured self-examination exercises. Further, I was unable to routinely reach out to my site supervisor for guidance on multiple related factors, i.e. on how to address concerns, issues, or tasks that I deem problematic. To a large extent, I was unable to meet this goal as a consequence of my multiple jobs as well as busy work schedule.