Sydney Miller

Responsibilities

During my internship, my key responsibilities included: shadowing counselors during sessions with their clients, writing reflections and summaries of my shadowing experiences, completing required employee trainings related to the mental health and social services field, reading books provided by my supervisor, working one-on-one with office supervisors and managers for each program, learning how to use the company's computer databases, and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the services and functions of the office. As I moved through my internship, I began learning how to write service plans for clients, shadowing client intake meetings, and working one-on-one with the Habilitation program manager to learn more about her position and proper documentation for clients.

Accomplishments

My internship gave me many opportunities to succeed, but my greatest accomplishment was being offered a position after graduation. This is special to me because I am planning to move to a town 3 hours away from Stepping Stone's main office, so I thought I would never be able to work for them. However, they decided to take a chance on me and offered me the opportunity of working with them to expand their services beyond Des Moines and Central Iowa! As I have come to learn, Western Iowa does not have as many mental health and social services that other parts of the state do, so this is an amazing opportunity to bring more services to that part of the state!

Learning experience

The biggest thing I learned from my experience is that you are always learning, and I think that this is something beautiful about this career field! From talking with colleagues who have been in this field for many years, and from my own experiences, you see, experience, and learn something new every day. This is a bit of a learning curve when you first start working, but I have learned a lot about going into things with an open mind and taking each moment as a learning opportunity because every situation is unique from another!

What advice would you give?

Be confident in yourself and put yourself out there. This is much easier said than done, but as someone who has always struggled with doing this, I've come to realize that this major and career field is so much more fun when you do. It is likely that you will be working with peers, coworkers, customers, and clients who feel uncomfortable in new situations, or who don't feel comfortable being themselves. However, if you are able to do that first, it is incredibly inviting, they will become more comfortable, and it's easier to connect!