Name: Kara Seidel

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Johns Hopkins Center for Learning and Health

Position Title: Trainee

Major(s)/Minor(s): Psychology / American Studies

Work Term: Fall 2016

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

Working as a trainee, I am directly involved in two NIH-funded projects. The first one deals with drug addiction and unemployment, and the second project deals with HIV education. Both projects use the therapeutic workplace, which require participants to come into the clinic everyday. Within both of these, I directly administer intake assessments including, but not limited to, informed consent, ASI-lite, Beck Depression Inventory, Wide-Range Achieving Test, and Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults.

In addition to administering these assessments, I have also learned how to score them appropriately. Beyond assessments, I also administer and communicate privacy practices, HIPAA forms, demographic information sheets, as well as determine if a person meets inclusionary and/or exclusionary criteria. Throughout these tasks, I use Qualtrics programming and registration software. I also interact with clinicians, as well as the research coordinators and Principal Investigator.

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I found my internship through UMBCWorks. I applied, then I received an email about coming in to interview.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

My favorite part of this position is the pace. I had to learn everything quickly and hands-on within my first week of being there, and that's exactly what I love! Some days are slower than others, but most days are fast-paced. Working with this population, I am learning that I can never be ready for what situations may arise. Everything that I have learned in my classes relates to what I do at Hopkins, and vice versa. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to learn about the integration of research, IRB, working in a clinical setting, and lab procedures in this one position.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Working as a trainee continually challenges me to learn how to take initiative and prepare for the unexpected situations. Some clients are going on job interviews, so I am going to be running an interviewing skills and professional dress workshop next week. These little opportunities make such an impact on at least one's person's progress, whether it is my personal progress, those of the coworkers, or the success of the participants.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Do not be afraid to take advantage of the resources available to you. I applied to this internship through UMBCWorks because I think it is important to go for positions that are different from your previous experiences, and I was really struggling in finding summer opportunities. I was looking for an experience to help me transition closer to my field of interest and when I saw this position, I figured I would try and go for it just to learn about the process of interviewing for clinical and research settings. I think that a lot of people take for granted how draining it can be to go through the whole application process, especially if you have not done it in a while.Take every experience, good or bad, as a learning opportunity.

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