Jennifer Verbridge

Major: Human Development and Family Studies
Company/Organization: Four Oaks Family and Children Services
Company/Organization website: https://www.fouroaks.org/
Destination: Ankeny, Iowa
Timeframe: Spring 2022
Advisor/Coordinator Email: hswebaid

Responsibilities

Right now at my Internship I have been learning a lot about everyone's role here at Four Oaks. They work mainly with Foster Care and different families that get licensed to be foster parents. They also dabble a bit with adoptions when children cannot return home due to certain circumstances. I am responsible for keeping different packets up to date, shadowing different roles such as caseworkers and staff in administration. They are also having me work on a project for foster parents that consists resources available to use when looking for doctors, dentist or anything relating to the child's needs.

Accomplishments

I am still just in the beginning stages of my internship but I do believe the greatest accomplishment is going to be seeing these kids get reunified with their parents. Learning about the role of caseworkers is going to help me tremendously for my future career.

Learning experience

I learned that there are a lot of different steps and challenges that go along to being a caseworker. You are always working with different families and children trying to make everyone happy. This can take a big toll on you mentally and it's important to take care of yourself as well. I am loving it here and learning new things about adoption and foster care every day!

What advice would you give?

Go outside your comfort zone when it comes to looking for an internship. I suggest finding a place that you've had no previous experience in before. I have many friends that are interning at a childcare center except they aren't learning much because they have been working in childcare so long. This built in internship is an opportunity to try something new and get a taste for a possible future career that you may be interested in. Don't waste this opportunity and make the most of it because it will definitely benefit you later in life!

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