Introducing the NEW University Counseling Center Undergraduate Internship Program

Training Program Description:

The University Counseling Center (UCC) is excited to announce that we are now recruiting for the new Undergraduate Internship Program (UIP). We are looking for undergraduate students who will be in their sophomore or junior year during the 2023-2024 academic year to join our training programs. The undergraduate interns will serve as leaders in building mental health resiliency within the campus community through offering workshops, outreach, and other student-facing services. See below for information on the program, a sample schedule for interns, who we are looking for, and the application (due February 3rd)! 

Mission:

In line with the mission of the University, the mission of the UCC Undergraduate Internship Program (UIP) is to maintain a trans-disciplinary and collaborative mental health initiative that prepares students from diverse backgrounds to serve as leaders, engage the local community to promote education, health and quality of life, and support student success and engagement. Specifically, we aim to recruit Undergraduate Interns (UIs) to lead mental health initiatives on campus through developing skills that will directly impact their campus community and are transferrable to a wide range of future careers. The UIP centers preventative and developmental services, with the ability to promote the intellectual (e.g., academic skills, study skills, managing neurodivergent concerns), emotional (e.g., distress tolerance, emotion regulation), cultural (e.g., community spaces, population specific programming), and social (e.g., connection to others, finding community) development of students in ways that are beyond the reach of typical individual therapy. 

The UIs, in partnership with other undergraduate allies on campus and our campus partners, will engage the U of U community in mental health programming with the following aims:

• Address common mental health concerns among students (e.g., emotion regulation, anxiety, motivation, social disconnection),
• Improve students' social-emotional skills (e.g., problem-solving, values-based decision-making, distress tolerance, sitting with ambiguity), and
• Develop preventative initiatives (e.g., suicide, interpersonal violence, sexual assault)

UIs will also select a particular campus group or sub-community to focus on through the duration of their time in the UIP and will coordinate with relevant campus partners to deliver community-specific services and to provide therapeutic campus community spaces. This internship emphasizes a holistic approach to health and wellness for college students and hopes to increase meaningful student engagement with campus resources and overall student success.   

Expectations and Roles:

Preparation for Internship (prior to starting): In order to provide a foundational understanding of our services and the roles that interns will play, we have set up training materials to help interns feel prepared when they start in the fall. This includes both a spring semester check-in and some independent training over the summer. 

• Spring Semester 2023: Selected interns will meet twice with the Undergraduate Internship Coordinator before the conclusion of the spring semester to discuss the program and expectations and appropriate preparation. Selected interns will also then attend at least one 4-week long workshop through the SWAMP as a participant in order to have a foundational understanding of the skills taught and the facilitation style.
• Summer 2023: Interns will be provided resources to prepare for the internship independently over the summer. These materials will include selected readings, audio/visual materials, and small assignments to acclimate the intern to counseling skills, ethics, and skills for outreach presentations. This work is expected to take no more than 20 hours across the duration of the summer semester.

Fall '23 and Spring '24: Interns will begin with a weeklong orientation (August 14 – August 18) with training on the UCC, the tools used in the UIP, and introductions to the different types of skills the interns will be expected to work on. Weekly, the intern schedules will typically include the following activities for a total requirement of 13 hours/week from interns (most hours will be completed in-person): 

• SWAMP Facilitation (3 hours/week): The Skills Workshops And Mindfulness Program (SWAMP) is one of the primary areas of direct client care that the UCC provides and that UIs will be involved with. The SWAMP offers several different workshops in both virtual and in-person formats, including workshops on managing stress as well as anxiety/depression symptoms. These workshops are typically 1 hour for 4 weeks. UIs will co-facilitate two SWAMP workshop sessions per week, receiving 30 minutes of supervision from their co-facilitator each time. Co-facilitating these workshops offers a great chance to engage directly with clients and to learn how to teach skills to students. See more here: https://skills.utah.edu/ 
• Social Media (1 hour/week): Our social media campaigns are one of the best ways that the campus community finds out about our services AND can learn new skills to improve their mental health and well-being. We also use social media to promote our campus partners’ events – which helps get the word out to the campus community and our own staff. UIs will work with UCC staff and other interns to create and implement ongoing social media campaigns.
• Outreach/Workshops (4 hours/week): One of the primary jobs of a UI is to help promote mental health and well-being on our campus. This occurs through workshops and programming around campus.
  • Community Space: In conjunction with graduate interns, the UIs will each establish a connection to a campus partner or community (e.g., Latina students, LGBTQ+ students) for the duration of the UIP. Within this connection, UIs will host community space every other week – whether this is drop-in hours to talk about mental health, learn about resources, or to have a specific training to address the needs of this group.
  • Campus Collaboration: UIs are a major resource for students on campus, specifically to help students learn more about the different resources available to them. UIs will become well-versed in understanding the different services provided by both the UCC and other campus partners (e.g., Academic Affairs, Learning Center, Center for Student Wellness). UIs will also collaborate with a campus partner every other week to offer workshops and events in conjunction with these different campus entities.
  • Themed Outreach: UIs will help launch a new set of workshops aimed at improving resiliency on campus. These workshops will address common concerns of students (e.g., motivation, study skills, social anxiety) in order to promote a more resilient U.
• Training (2.5 hours/week): UIs will have direct training in order to complete their weekly tasks. This training will primarily be completed with the Undergraduate Internship Coordinator, UCC staff, and graduate student interns.
  • Seminar: UIs will attend a 2-hour weekly seminar. This seminar is where UIs will learn new skills, practice the skills they are teaching, brainstorm new ideas and programming, and be a space for connection to one another and learning about the mental health field.
  • Supervision: Each UI will have a 1-hour supervision session every other week with the Undergraduate Internship Coordinator and/or other staff. The focus of this supervision time may be on skill development of the intern, answering questions, and checking in on progress towards learning outcomes for the intern.
• Reading/Preparation (2/hours/week): UIs will need to spend some time each week reading about the skills they will be presenting or learning about how to engage in outreach. Preparation will likely take less time across the course of the year.
• Scheduling/Managing Campus Collaboration (.5 hours/week): A primary function of the UIs is to collaborate with campus partners for outreach. UIs will be expected to use time weekly to maintain a professional ongoing relationship with campus partners. 

click here to view a PDF sample schedule

Qualifications:

What are we looking for? 

We are accepting applications from students who:

• Will be enrolled full-time in the 2023-2024 school year (12 credits/semester)
• Will be entering their sophomore or junior year
• Are currently majoring in a helping profession field (social work, psychology, nursing, etc) AND/OR has previous experience in providing similar services (working as peer support; working as a psych tech; working on a crisis hotline, etc)
• Are passionate about promoting mental well-being on campus
• Are interested in approaching mental health from a social justice and multicultural lens

Our UIP will provide training and supervision in the skills that interns are expected to utilize during their program. However, previous experience demonstrating any of the following skills will be strongly considered: 

• Engaging presentation
• Flexibility
• Proactive problem-solving
• Leadership
• Helping skills – listening, empathy, goal-setting, rapport building
• Collaboration
• Personal awareness

Benefits:

UIs will be paid a stipend of $6,000 across the academic year for completion of their work. In addition, UIs will have access to supervision and training from UCC staff and will develop skills in leadership, basic helping skills, community engagement, outreach skills, and gain a firm foundation in mental health. UIs will become members of a great team at the UCC and will have be leaders in providing services to improve the resiliency of our campus community. 

Applicants will be selected for 1 hour interviews, in person, occurring February 20 - March 3. 

fill out your application