As a speech therapist's assistant at the Association for the Help of Retarded Children (AHRC) Middle/High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., Katherine De Jesus says her work has been an "eye-opening experience." De Jesus plans to head to a master's program as soon as she graduates, to study for a career in speech pathology. This is her first internship, and it has given her a much greater understanding about autism, as well as about her own abilities to work with and help children with special needs.
At AHRC, De Jesus works with a supervisor, Allison Weiss, going into classrooms and making sure that teachers and aids implement various communication programs. The majority of her work has been to start the Picture Exchange Communication System, which helps nonverbal or minimally verbal students to communicate to others and express their wants and needs. The program provides students with pictures of favorite or necessary items (such as cookies or the bathroom), which the students can give to adults to receive those items. In addition, De Jesus helps as a supervisor at the school's swimming program, making sure that the students get in the water and have a good time.
De Jesus says that the mail goal of her work is to encourage autistic children to initiate any kind of conversation or vocal request. It has been challenging to deal with the children's behavioral issues, but she says that working at AHRC has reminded her how many autistic children there are who are in need of extra help and support. Her job has also shown her the lack of resources that schools like AHRC have, which she says is a huge contrast to college, where students have the tools they need to help them reach their potential.
A psychology major at Hamilton, De Jesus serves as the secretary for the multicultural sorority Alpha Chi Lambda (AXΛ). She has also been a member of Tropical Sol, a Latin dance group on campus. Although she knew exactly what kind of work she wanted to pursue this summer, she says that the search process was stressful as well as exciting. "In order to get started I literally had to backtrack," she says: although she wanted to work with a speech therapist, she had no idea where to apply. Leslie Bell, associate director of the Career Center, helped her search the Internet for possible opportunities, and the two worked together on resumes and cover letters. "The most difficult part of the process was waiting for a response from all the contacts," says De Jesus.
Career-related experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students, but often internships are unpaid, requiring students to cover their own room and board as well as working for free. Although most of De Jesus' contacts told her that they only provided paying internships to graduate students, she was able to secure funding from the Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, which was 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.
-- by Laura Bramley
At AHRC, De Jesus works with a supervisor, Allison Weiss, going into classrooms and making sure that teachers and aids implement various communication programs. The majority of her work has been to start the Picture Exchange Communication System, which helps nonverbal or minimally verbal students to communicate to others and express their wants and needs. The program provides students with pictures of favorite or necessary items (such as cookies or the bathroom), which the students can give to adults to receive those items. In addition, De Jesus helps as a supervisor at the school's swimming program, making sure that the students get in the water and have a good time.
De Jesus says that the mail goal of her work is to encourage autistic children to initiate any kind of conversation or vocal request. It has been challenging to deal with the children's behavioral issues, but she says that working at AHRC has reminded her how many autistic children there are who are in need of extra help and support. Her job has also shown her the lack of resources that schools like AHRC have, which she says is a huge contrast to college, where students have the tools they need to help them reach their potential.
A psychology major at Hamilton, De Jesus serves as the secretary for the multicultural sorority Alpha Chi Lambda (AXΛ). She has also been a member of Tropical Sol, a Latin dance group on campus. Although she knew exactly what kind of work she wanted to pursue this summer, she says that the search process was stressful as well as exciting. "In order to get started I literally had to backtrack," she says: although she wanted to work with a speech therapist, she had no idea where to apply. Leslie Bell, associate director of the Career Center, helped her search the Internet for possible opportunities, and the two worked together on resumes and cover letters. "The most difficult part of the process was waiting for a response from all the contacts," says De Jesus.
Career-related experience is becoming more and more necessary for college students, but often internships are unpaid, requiring students to cover their own room and board as well as working for free. Although most of De Jesus' contacts told her that they only provided paying internships to graduate students, she was able to secure funding from the Joseph F. Anderson Internship Fund, which was 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.
-- by Laura Bramley
