What better way to learn about our program than to hear the stories of our past interns’ experiences?
Our interns are happy to answer questions about their experiences, please contact us if you’d like to be connected with a current intern.
“Additional benefits that I have enjoyed are the opportunity for ongoing training, involvement in weekly therapist meetings, involvement in crisis team meetings, and working with another school psychology intern.”
Northern Suburban Special Education District – Glenview
Working for NSSED as an intern in Glenview District 34 has been a very rewarding experience thus far. One of the best aspects of this internship is the almost endless variety of experiences that it offers. The internship is set up in such a way that it allows you to work in an early childhood and pre-k setting, a self-contained classroom for early elementary aged children on the Autism spectrum, as well as in a large middle school – and those are just the core settings! Being housed in a large district and cooperative, this internship allows you to explore almost any interest that you might have. Experiences include evaluations, teacher and parent consultation in both District 34 as well as private placements, academic and behavioral intervention, leading social skills groups, early childhood screenings, family and community outreach, systems-level consulting, coaching opportunities, and so much more. NSSED also offers a wealth of professional development opportunities and access to professionals with a vast array of specializations. The supervisors available are incredibly supportive and truly care that their interns get what they want to out of the internship experience. I highly recommend this site to anyone with a broad range of interests in the field of school psychology. Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have about the intern experience at this site: amy.gyllborg@gmail.com.
Maine East High School
Working as an intern at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, IL has afforded many valuable experiences through the year. The intern’s experiences range from administering assessments and writing evaluations to individual and group counseling to supporting the implementation of Response to Intervention. The interns have been a member of problem solving teams and individual education plan teams. The supervisor at Maine East ensures that individual and group supervision time is met each week. This high school is incredibly diverse and one of the greatest parts of interning here is getting to learn about the cultural backgrounds of many students and how language and culture play a role in a student’s education and social emotional functioning. The interns have also had the opportunity to work in elementary and middle schools in Arlington Heights School District 25 and Park Ridge School District 64 one day a week. These districts have been implementing flexible service delivery and response to intervention for a number of years and it has been very beneficial as an intern to learn from their experiences. ISPIC provides a great network of Illinois schools and interns from across the country. We feel much gratitude for the experiences and relationships gained this year and feel more competent as professional school psychologists. If you have any questions about Maine East High School, you can contact us at jennmills81@gmail.com, jillian.clarke88@gmail.com, or m_fraire@hotmail.com.
Illinois State University – Psychological Services Center (Medical Track)
What I love most about my internship so far at the Psychological Services Center (PSC) Medical track has been the diversity of training experiences. I have the opportunity to train in 3 very diverse settings throughout the week. For my school placements I work at a pre-k through 8th grade school in a traditional RTI school psychology role assisting in educational testing and academic interventions. I also provide counseling services to a high needs rural high school one day a week. For my medical placement, I spend two days a week at a primary care office in Livingston County. The patients range from birth to geriatric with various physical and emotional health concerns. I have the opportunity to work directly with family practitioners in integrated medical visits, consultation and training. I focus one of my days more on individual and group sessions with patients utilizing short-term interventions for health related issues. Finally, in my third training site, I have had the opportunity to teach an undergraduate class at Illinois State University in Behavioral Disorders in Children. With all of these varied experiences, I have really valued the high quality supervision and trainings that I have been given through the consortium. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at cavalen@ilstu.edu
Livingston County Special Services Unit
My name is Ashley, and I am currently an intern at Livingston County Special Services Unit (LCSSU) in Pontiac. I love that my experiences are so diverse! Each day of the week I am in a different setting. One day I am in a Pre-K to 4 building running class-wide social skills interventions, attending IEP meetings, helping with RTI systems, and doing play-based assessments. Another day I am at a high school as a member of the assessment team and provide counseling services for students in an alternative learning program. Two days per week I am in countywide programs: one for elementary students with emotional and behavioral concerns and the other for preschool children with significant communication impairments (including autism). The final day of my week I work on a countywide mental health grant that is implementing systems to provide tier 1 and 2 services across the districts in the county. If you are interested in this internship or have any questions, please email me at awhittington@lcssu.org.