For Kate Fillion '10 (Clinton, Conn.), working with children this summer isn't just fun and games. The rising junior is working as an intern at the Children's Psychiatric Partial Hospital Program (PHP), run in conjunction with the Yale Children's Hospital Child Psychiatric Inpatient Service (CPIS). The program serves children aged 4 to 14 and offers schooling, therapeutic recreation and music therapy, as well as individual and group therapy. It employs doctors, nurses, counselors and social workers as well as student interns.
Fillion, a psychology major at Hamilton, heard about the Partial Hospital Program from a neighbor who works as a nurse at CPIS. Patients in the two programs attend school and group therapy together, but the CPIS children are hospital in-patients, receiving 24-hour support from staff, while those enrolled in PHP are deemed fit to live at home.
PHP itself is new to Fillion, but working with children is not: she has been a basketball camp counselor and has worked at a children's camp. "I've worked all day with kids," she says. Despite her experience with children, however, Fillion says that her first day on the job was "extremely nerve-wracking." Since then, she's been observing and learning her way around the program, and she says she has already learned a great deal, much of which gives her practical experience that complements her major. "It's been really interesting," she comments.
The most unexpected part of her job has been how unwilling some of the patients are to receive therapy. "Some kids don't want to accept treatment," Fillion says. "You learn what kind of behaviors go with what kinds of disorders. You don't want these kids to be having a miserable time – you want them to get better."
A member of the rugby team and a "sporadic" HAVOC volunteer, Fillion cites the career center as a great resource for students hopeful of finding – and funding – internships. Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
Asked for her advice to students thinking about summer internships, Fillion replies, "Don't be picky." The key, she says, is to "throw yourself into what you're doing. It's really worthwhile." Even if the prospective internship may not be the exact job a student was looking for, trying it out anyway provides valuable experience.
After Hamilton, Fillion plans to attend graduate school. "Pursuing what? I have no idea," she says. But she's not ruling out working at a program such as PHP: "I will look around, but it's a definite possibility."
-- by Laura Bramley
Fillion, a psychology major at Hamilton, heard about the Partial Hospital Program from a neighbor who works as a nurse at CPIS. Patients in the two programs attend school and group therapy together, but the CPIS children are hospital in-patients, receiving 24-hour support from staff, while those enrolled in PHP are deemed fit to live at home.
PHP itself is new to Fillion, but working with children is not: she has been a basketball camp counselor and has worked at a children's camp. "I've worked all day with kids," she says. Despite her experience with children, however, Fillion says that her first day on the job was "extremely nerve-wracking." Since then, she's been observing and learning her way around the program, and she says she has already learned a great deal, much of which gives her practical experience that complements her major. "It's been really interesting," she comments.
The most unexpected part of her job has been how unwilling some of the patients are to receive therapy. "Some kids don't want to accept treatment," Fillion says. "You learn what kind of behaviors go with what kinds of disorders. You don't want these kids to be having a miserable time – you want them to get better."
A member of the rugby team and a "sporadic" HAVOC volunteer, Fillion cites the career center as a great resource for students hopeful of finding – and funding – internships. Thanks to alumni and parent donations, Hamilton students can apply for funding to support them while they work in a field of interest with an organization that cannot pay them. Hamilton's Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, given in honor of a 1944 Hamilton graduate who served the college for 18 years as vice president for communications and development. The fund in his name provides individual stipends to support full-time internships for students wishing to expand their educational horizons in preparation for potential careers after graduation.
Asked for her advice to students thinking about summer internships, Fillion replies, "Don't be picky." The key, she says, is to "throw yourself into what you're doing. It's really worthwhile." Even if the prospective internship may not be the exact job a student was looking for, trying it out anyway provides valuable experience.
After Hamilton, Fillion plans to attend graduate school. "Pursuing what? I have no idea," she says. But she's not ruling out working at a program such as PHP: "I will look around, but it's a definite possibility."
-- by Laura Bramley
