- For my practicum, I was a teaching assistant for PSYC353: Adult Psychopathology. I engaged in therapy role-plays with the professor in order to demonstrate what an effective counseling session should look like. I also helped another teaching assistant lead live interviews with guest speakers who were volunteers who talked about their experiences with mental illnesses. In addition, I helped the professor collect videos about eating disorders that he shared with his classes.
- I found out about this experience when I was a student in PYSC353 my freshman year. I really enjoyed the class, so I inquired about a teaching assistant opportunity. I would advise future Media Scholars to attend office hours and participate in the classes they love in order to build a good relationship with their professor. This will make it easier to ask supervisors about more opportunities, and I suggest setting up a separate meeting to talk about it.
- I learned the components of a productive therapy session when I was participating in the role-plays with my professor. I also learned the process of conducting interviews, such as reading the person’s background and creating questions beforehand that are interesting but also respectful. In addition, I learned how to select effective material for a class, such as making sure a video has enough information but is also not too long.
- By being a teaching assistant, I have grown as a person and a student in many ways. I am more confident because of all the leadership opportunities, such as leading live interviews over Zoom in front of the whole class. I gained more knowledge about psychology, which has helped me in my future classes. I developed better communication skills because I needed to keep in constant contact with the professor and other teaching assistants. The evidence I chose for this is my end of semester reflection for this experience: reflection.pdf
- I included this because when I was writing my reflection, I was given the opportunity to think about what I took from this experience and all the things I was able to accomplish. This reflection shows how everything I participated in as a teaching assistant made an impact on me and helped me develop useful skills.
- I can apply this practicum to my life moving forward by incorporating my new skills and knowledge into every experience, whether it be related to my career or not. This summer, I have an internship at an addiction center and I know the leadership skills I gained will help me with this experience. My increased communication skills will help me develop better relationships with people around me in both my career and in my personal life.
- For the rest of my time at UMD, I plan to work in Psychology labs on campus to continue gaining experience in my field. I also hope to study abroad at one point because I believe that it is a valuable opportunity. I will continue taking classes for my major and graduate on time. After I graduate, I plan on attending graduate school and getting my PhD in clinical psychology. I want to become a clinical psychologist and work with children in the future.