Tips on supervising an intern

Last year was my first time hosting a counselor intern and it was a great experience for both myself and the intern.  We were a great team!  I'll be supervising a new intern this school year from NC State University and now have a better idea of ways to supervise an intern.  Here are a few tips that worked well with me:

-Invite your intern to the school to see the building, meet the staff and if permitting meet the students before the internship starts.

-If possible get the contact information (email, phone number) of your intern.  My intern this year and I planned over the summer on things that we wanted to do. 

-Ask your intern what are their counseling strengths/weaknesses and areas that they would like to focus on.

-Allow your intern to take on or share leadership positions (when they're comfortable with that)

-Be open and honest and give feedback on their progress (give clear suggestions on how to improve).

-Don't treat them as "the intern".  When I student taught and interned, my supervisors treated me just like one of them.   Meet in a non school (lunch or coffee) setting to get to know each other so you'll have a better idea of what kind of person you'll be working with for the school year. 

-Learn from your intern!  Interns have fresh ideas from school and can add creatively to the school counseling program.  While they're learning from us, we are learning from them!

Now you get the opportunity to share your school counselor experience with an intern.  I think back on my internship experiences as both a student teacher and a counselor intern and will say that I learned so much more than any text book could have ever prepared me for from being in a school interacting with students and other staff. 

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