[humanser] Dealing with blindness when applying to internships

[Shannon Cook]

Hi,
The purpose of having an internship is to get experience under guidance.  Are you the only student who is at this point in your educational career who does not have experience?  Are they asking those students to postpone their internships for that same reason too?  If not, then I would have to think it is definitely a blindness issue.

Shannon Cook, MSW
Older Blind Counselor
SC Commission for the Blind
(803) 898-8809  Office
(803) 898-8867  Fax
PO Box 2467
Columbia, SC 29202

-----Original Message-----
From: humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Milissa Garside
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 9:57 AM
To: 'Human Services Mailing List'
Subject: [humanser] Dealing with blindness when applying to internships

                Hi Everyone,

I have been on this list for a while and have enjoyed the discussions.

I am currently a graduate student at Lesley University getting my masters in
mental health counseling. I am slated to begin my first internship in the
fall of 2010. However, my advisor recommended that I put my internship off
for a year because I do not have any "work experience." I have been advised
to get some volunteer work which I have done. Although I do not have any
"work experience" I do have a great deal of volunteer work within the human
service field. The decision to wait another year does not sit well with me.
As a result, I have spoken to several people at the university including the
disability coordinator as well as the field training person. The field
training person saw my resume last night and agreed that I have enough
experience to warrant applying for an internship. However, both she and my
advisor have raised the question how is it that a blind person can establish
a therapeutic connection with a sighted client? . I don't feel that they are
asking these types of questions because they are trying to prevent me from
interning. They just feel that these are questions that internship sights
are going to want to know and I am going to need to be able to answer it
confidently. When I was first presented with this question, I did not know
how to answer it. I'm wondering if this is something that super visors
really want to know? And if so, how does one answer the question of how we
as blind people establish a therapeutic connection without sight? Any help
is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Milissa



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