Week 1

This week was the first week at my placement. I had met with Mary Cella, my placement supervisor, two weeks
prior to my first day starting my internship at Little Sisters of the Poor. She gave me a tour of the nursing home and
told me about some of the things we would be working on during my internship. When I arrived to my placement, I
was very nervous because I did not know what to expect. The nervousness did not last long because Mary was very
thorough in explaining the job and showing me what I had to do for the day. I will be assisting her with her job as
the volunteer manager. I am very excited to work at Little Sisters of the Poor for the experience of working with the
elderly. I have worked with children for twenty years and this is going to be a new experience for me. I wanted the
experience of working with older adults to see if I would like it.

Week 2
During the second week of my internship, I assisted with new volunteer orientation. This was a great experience for
me considering I work with lots of volunteers on my full time job. I helped with making sure all the volunteers
filled out all the necessary paperwork needed, assisted with the tour of the facility and approved the candidates to
start volunteering with Little Sisters of the Poor. There were a variety of volunteers how attended the
orientation. Adults who come to volunteer can select their area they are most comfortable with to volunteer
in. When volunteers are sixteen, must volunteer with a parent and they have to volunteer in every area of the
program before they can pick an area to work in. Little Sisters of the Poor is a large facility and remembering
how to get around will take some time. I recently learned that my supervisor will be out on a leave of absence for a
couple of weeks. I will report to the head of fund raising while she is out and also to one of the sisters. While my
supervisor is out on leave, I will help with running the volunteer piece for the agency. This upcoming week, I will
be training with Mary before she leaves on everything I have to do. In addition to training for her absence, I will also
volunteer in the kitchen and the laundry room as a requirement for working at the nursing home. This is to ensure I
understand the process of how those two areas work.

Week 3
During my third week of the internship, I have been challenged some in my position. I worked with my site
supervisor on ensuring everything is in place for her leave of absence. The source of my stress came with the
thought of having to take on the full responsibility of running the volunteer piece for the agency. I felt like a weight
was dumped on me because I am so new and how in the world would I know how to do her job. Well I really blew
this situation up to make it something bigger than what it really is. I work with volunteers at my regular job on a
daily basis and am worrying for nothing. I think I imposed the stress of this position on me because this internship
is out of my comfort zone. I have never worked in an environment outside of a school setting and that is where the
stress started. It is the fear of the unknown for me and I have to start thinking of this as a learning experience for
what's to come. When things are new to me, I tend to overanalyze, overreact and worry too much. Going forward I
know I need to take a moment to process what is going on than react. Otherwise I will stress myself out over
something that is not a big deal.

Week 4
During this week of my internship, I had to fill in for my direct supervisor along with another intern. I was faced
with the tasks of scheduling volunteers, creating a schedule and maintaining it throughout the week, giving new
volunteers a tour of the facility, and making sure the volunteers were provided with projects while they are at the
nursing home. With the tasks of this week, I have learned to reduce and manage stress by mapping out and
prioritizing what needs to go on for the day. This assisted me with keeping my stress levels low. It helped because I
was able to visually see what I had to do and in what order. At any point if some unexpected tasks were added to
my day, I still followed the same method of prioritizing. In maintaining healthy boundaries between my personal
life and my professional life, I have learned to not mix the two and know when to turn my professional life off to
start my personal. I have done this by not bringing work home and knowing when my work day is over.

Week 5
The supervisory relationship between myself and my site supervisor is very professional. She is a great mentor and
leader. Since my site supervisor is out on leave, I have been communicating with her through emails. We discuss
the job and how everything is going thus far. II communicate daily with my site supervisors boss, Sister
Cecile. She checks in to make sure everything is going well and will let me know if the residents need volunteers to
help them out. In the last five weeks, I have learned a lot about volunteer management. Some of the challenges that
I have encountered are ensuring we have volunteers each day, helping the residents with getting volunteers to help
them personally and making sure the volunteers are doing the job they signed up to do. I would like to grow in my
skills to use supervision effectively by using some of her expertise. She is great at delegating work and how she has
it organized and set up is a great way for me to use as well.

Week 6
This week at my internship I was a little anxious. I had to give a tour of the facility and run new volunteer
orientation with the help of another intern, while my site supervisor observed. In conducting the tour, I was nervous
because the group consisted of 35 people and I had to do everything by myself. The nervousness came in at the
thought of answering questions from the volunteers. In the end, I had nothing to be nervous about because the tour
went well. An example of my best work at my internship was when I ran the new volunteer orientation for my site
supervisor. During the orientation, I gave a tour to the new volunteers and went through an information session that
consisted of reviewing the volunteer handbook with the policies and the procedures of the agency, filling out
paperwork, and answering questions. While doing the orientation, my site supervisor sat at the table to observe.
Once the session was over, my site supervisor shared how I did during the orientation. She felt I did a good job and
gave me some reminders of information to use during the next volunteer orientation the following day. The next
day my site supervisor said she felt I did a good job and was confident enough with me doing the orientation without
her being there. I was pleased with her decision and made sure I included the information she reminded me of from
the previous day.

Over the course of my education, my reflections and analysis on my work has changed in a way that allows me to be
better at my job. I am able to be in tuned with my supervising styles. I am able to analyze different situations with
staff and not overreact in a way that would affect the moral of the staff. I am more open to utilizing staff
suggestions for how we complete a task. I have come to a comfortable place where I can delegate more and be okay
with the process reaching proper end result.

When applying the IPM model to my internship experience, developing a plan reflects my best work. When I first
started this internship, I had no clue as to what to expect during this process. I knew I wanted to work outside of my
comfort zone and be challenged. I came into this internship with an open mind and a ready to work mentality. After
starting this internship and finding out I would have to work as my site supervisor for the month of June, I had to
develop a plan. I had to learn what her position consisted of and how she worked her position. In addition to
learning this, I had to also get familiar with the agency and how it is ran. I developed a plan on how to be successful
in my position as volunteer manager and continue the same climate that was already set up by the site supervisor. I
have been able to maintain this and am able to interact with the other supervisors if I need help.

Week 7
During my internship, I interact with a number of individuals. In my role as the Director of Volunteering, a number
of the residents come into the office daily to talk and or ask for help with their gardens. In interacting with them
daily I found that they have a voice and they want to be heard. I welcome them into the office and the agency has an
open door policy. In the beginning of my internship, one of the residents came into the office asking for a volunteer
to give her a ride to a doctors appointment the next day. I listened to her story about how she didnt feel well and
she has been prolonging going because she does not want to take anymore medications. I told her I would look into
it and see what I could do. One of the task that the Director of Volunteer Services handles is finding volunteer
drivers for the residents to appointments. The process consists of the head of medical transportation sending out an
email to me asking for a driver for a particular resident, on a specific day and time. Once I receive the email, I email
the volunteers who are designated to drive an email seeing who is available to take the run. Once the volunteer
driver confirms they can take the run, I email the head of medical transportation the name of the driver. Since I was
new to the agency, I felt like the resident was trying to take advantage of me. Once she left the office, I sent the
head of medical transportation an email confirming the policies and procedures for securing transportation. She
confirmed the resident has to go through her and I thanked her for confirming the policy. With my experience in
working in administration, I know there are policies and procedures that have to be followed and my instinct kicked
in to ask for clarity.

My strengths in working with individuals are that I am able to listen and not be biased, I am sympathetic and
empathetic when needed, and I am very friendly and inviting with my approach. My weakness would be I want to
help individuals with everything they need and I cannot let go. I will try my best to help everyone with whatever
they need and sometimes it carries over in my nonworking life. I have to learn to follow keeping boundaries
between the two and know that I cannot help and fix everyone. This is a work in progress that I am trying to
practice daily.

Week 8
An example of my best work at my internship was how I was able to build relationships with the residents in such a
short period of time. The residents started out just telling me what they wanted and no small talk. The more I
worked at my internship, the more comfortable they became with me and started holding conversations with me.
The conversations consisted of them sharing personal information about their life and how they reflected on
different things. My site supervisor said she was impressed that they were coming in a talking to me because it took
them a couple of months to get use to her. I have always been a people person and tried think of all the residents as
if they were my grandparents. I wanted to do whatever I could to help them and make them feel comfortable with
me. Over the course of my education, I have reflected and analyzed my actions as a supervisor. I thought about my
style as a supervisor and if there is anything I could do differently. I was not following up with my staff on things
they were supposed to work on and this was something that I had to work on changing. This was a gradual process
for me and by improving how I document the meetings I had with my staff. By doing this I was able to go back
over my documentations and follow up with the staff frequently to insure they are doing their job.

During this week of my internship, it was my last week working five days a week. I prepared a mass email to
remind volunteers to sign up for the upcoming volunteer appreciation luncheon. The agency holds this luncheon
annually and all the staff help out to make sure this event is a great experience for the volunteers. This luncheon
was postponed due to an unexpected building maintenance. When we found out we had to postpone the luncheon,
we had to send out a message to all the volunteers who signed up to attend. We used an online invite system, called
Evite, to send out the invitations for the luncheon. The Evite automatically sends out reminder messages about an
event when the time is near for the event to take place. Evite automatically sent all our volunteers reminder
messages after we postponed the event and we had to send out another mass emailing explaining the mistake. There
some volunteers that were not happy and they expressed this via emails. We were able to clear up the situation and
told all the volunteers to be on the lookout for the new luncheon date.

Week 9
The cultural differences that I have encountered during my internship are the population of people I am working
with, seniors. I have never worked with seniors and this was a mental challenge for me. I did not know if I would
be able to relate to the residents and or meet their needs. Once I started to interact with the residents, I found it was
not hard to relate to them and or meet their needs. The more I interacted with the residents, the easier it became for
me to understand how to meet their needs. The residents I encountered only wanted to be heard and know that they
matter when they express their needs and or wants. My job was to point them in the right direction to get them what
they need/want. Building relationships with the residents helped set the foundation for them to trust me. The
greatest cultural challenge is not taking some of the residents negative comments to heart. I have dealt with this by
picturing myself in their place and reacting to them in a calm and warm way. In all the instances when the residents
made the negative comments, I did not respond until they were completely finished speaking. I allowed them to
vent and get out what they were thinking. Once I heard all they had to say, I tried to see how I could help turn their
negativity around with a positive outcome. I was not able to help everyone but I put in the effort to try and meet
their needs. I would access my current level of skills working with people who are culturally different than me by
educating myself on the background of the people I am working with. I would do this to make sure I am aware of
what is acceptable in their culture. I would also be an active listener paying attention to details and body language.

During this week of my internship, I attended a mixer with my site supervisor. I went to New Castle County
Chamber of Commerce, Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (D.A.N.A.), and Delaware Association of
Volunteer Administration (D.A.V.A.) presents the Fifth Annual Business and Nonprofits Together A Hawaiian
Luau-Themed Mixer. This mixer brings the business and nonprofit worlds together to network. It was a great
experience for me because I had the opportunity to learn about other nonprofits that work with Little Sisters of the
Poor. The mixer consisted of food, meet and greet, games, and prizes. Also, Little Sisters hosted their annual
volunteer appreciation luncheon. I had been working on setting up the volunteer luncheon during the month of June
and it was postponed until July. During the luncheon, I was able to serve the volunteers and meet a lot of the
volunteers I set up with opportunities via email. There was a turnout of about 60 volunteers and they were served by
the staff.

Week 10
When I first started out as a Teacher, I had a student in my class and her father was trying to hit on me. Prior to the
student being in my class, I was out one weekend with some of my friends. I shared a dance with a nameless
gentleman and did not exchange contact information with him. When the student started in my class, I only met her
very married mother. A couple of weeks after she was in my class, her father dropped off one morning. He
recognized me and told me where he knew me from. This was the beginning of some awkward encounters. He
began dropping off frequently and each time he would come into my classroom, he would find a way to say
something to me. He would comment on what I was wearing and how I looked. I was starting to feel
uncomfortable because he was doing this in front of my assistant. I went to my supervisor and explained the whole
situation to her because we had an incident in the work place with another employee having a relationship with a
married parent. I expressed how he was starting to make me feel uncomfortable and I did not want to be in the room
with him alone. My supervisor thanked me for coming to her and asked if we could keep documentation of his
encounters with me. There were no specific policies on dating the families in our program but I never wanted to
cross that line. I made it clear to the parent that this is my place of business, he is married and that I would
appreciate it if our encounters only pertained to information about his child. Once I let him know this, he was not as
persistent and backed off. Morally what he was doing was wrong and I am not the type of person to mix business
with personal. On top of that he was a married man and that is a line I never cross.

During this week of my internship, I worked with my site supervisor on automating the volunteer sign up system. In
the previous week, we went through the list of volunteers and selected 50 volunteers to start with for data entry into
the new system. Throughout the week I entered all the information needed to get them set up, once the system
launches. When I met with Mary, I showed her all the work I did in the system. We went through the system and I
showed her how to navigate through system. I showed her how to add new volunteers, how to edit the application,
and how to send emails to volunteers that give them a temporary password to setup their login to the new system.
Mary was pleased with the progress we made and wanted to try and set up a meeting with Sister Cecile to get a
location for the computer setup. We need a computer setup in the lobby for the volunteers to clock-in and clock-out
when they come to volunteer. In order for us to set up the new computer we need permission on a location in the
nursing home. For the upcoming week, I have the task of setting up an email draft to invite 8 volunteers to start the
process of using the automated system.

Week 11
As my internship is coming to an end, I appreciate the working relationships I was able to build and establish with
the Administrators at Little Sisters of the Poor. The whole experience of me working with my site supervisor has
been a great experience within itself. I was able to learn a new job and execute it to the best of my ability without
creating a hardship to the agency. I maintained the same level of professionalism that my site supervisor set up and
I was very pleased to hear positive feedback from my site supervisor. I have no regrets about the internship because
it has been such a positive experience for me. For my continual professional and personnel growth, I need to invest
a more consistent effort in networking with other nonprofit organizations to build lasting relationships. I was able to
attend a mixer to introduce me to other agencies and if I continue to mix with other nonprofits, I can start building
the relationships.
During this week of my internship, I worked the Potluck event. This event was held to bring families in to have
lunch with their loved ones. The families are served a hot meal and are also welcomed to bring in a dish to share. I
helped serve the residents and their families, I interacted with the families and assisted with cleanup. The event had
a nice turn out of families and everyone was all smiles during the event. There were some residents who did not
have family attend and they were seated with residents who had family attend, so they could be included.

Week 12
My short term goals are obtaining my masters degree, find a new job in administration, and begin saving for a new
home. My long term goals are to become the executive director of an agency and to become a home owner. I will
obtain these goals by putting in a consistent effort working towards completing them. I am in the final semester of
graduate school and I will graduate in January. Once I am finished with my last semester, I will begin looking and
applying for a new job. Once I get my new job, I will increase the amount I am saving for a down payment for my
new home. In five to ten years I plan be an executive director of an agency in the human services field. In my
position of executive director I would like to continue working with youth.


Week 13
During this week of my internship, I interviewed the social worker (Carrie) on her role at Little Sisters of the Poor.
She is responsible for setting up the residents 3 month care plan, hold a care conference, and review their medical
plan. She has the residents fill out a mental mood survey to determine which activities they would be compatible
with participating in. Carrie takes care of all the residents Medicare problems with Medicaid, she makes sure the
residents accounts are billed the correct amount and she is the liaison between the nursing home and the hospital if
the resident is admitted into the hospital. She has to know the state rules and regulations to help the residents with
what is needed for their care. Carrie works with the residents families to help them resolve conflicts with their
loved ones and to also help them understand the care plan their loved one is receiving. I felt she had a big job and
her hands full with handling the care of 80 residents. She said it is not a lot on her because everyone in the nursing
home helps out with the care of the residents and they communicate regularly.


Week 14
This was the last week of my internship and it was a great experience. I worked on finalizing my part with helping
automating the volunteer sign up system. I showed my site supervisor how to maneuver behind the scenes with the
Volgistics website and also how to send emails using the new system. I enjoyed my time at Little Sisters of the Poor
and learned a lot from this experience. I learned how to network with other organizations to find volunteers to work
in a program, I learned how to conduct orientation for volunteers and I learned how to care for seniors. This
experience allowed me the opportunity to work in a Human Service agency other than education. I was taken
outside of my comfort zone of working with children and learned how to work with seniors. The staff were all very
helpful and willing to help me along the way as I completed my internship. The staff at the agency work together
like a family cohesively getting all their daily task completed.