The 38th Year of My First Year Internship

Almost exactly 38 years ago, I had a meeting at Tufts a few months prior to starting a graduate program in counseling there. I met with the professor who coordinated internships for all the students in my program. It was a pretty short meeting. He asked me what I was looking for in an internship and my answer was simple: "I want to work with kids and I won't have a car. So I need to find a site that's accessible by mass transit." I'd love to tell you that there were more considerations than that but that's really how it went. He told me "You should check out The Academy of Physical and Social Development in Newton. It's a therapeutic gym program for kids and I believe you can take the bus to Watertown Square and then walk the remainder of the way."  I set up an interview and, shortly afterward, accepted a position as an intern there. I worked there part-time the year after that and then full-time for 4 years after I got my degree. It was during my final year there that my colleague Gary Steinberg and I started working on plans for opening Academy MetroWest. 

This year, I've been telling my interns that I'm in the midst of the 38th year of my first year internship. 

Of course, as an owner and director of a practice, the scope of my job has expanded a bit from when I was an intern. But my experience as an intern at Newton was so valuable and eye opening (not to mention fun) for me that I've fashioned a career for myself that draws heavily on the skills I learned back in 1988. And I'm not alone in that position here. In looking at our most recent staff photo, it occurred to me that every member of our staff except one started at the Academy either as an intern or as a client. Tim Couto, a full-time counselor on our staff, did his internship with us back in 2015. Hope Notaro, who worked here from 2015 to 2022, did her internship at Newton prior to joining our staff. And there have been others over the years. It's kind of an obvious fit. While they're students, interns receive training in all the principles and techniques they'll need to be effective clinicians on our staff. So once they join our professional staff, they can hit the ground running. 

I know that in some settings, interns end up being treated as little more than free labor. It doesn't always start out that way but as their supervisors focus on day to day problems, the task of training interns can become a lower priority for them. We try hard to prevent that from happening. Aside from feeling a responsibility to the field reflected in the training of capable and compassionate interns, I think back to the support and guidance I received and feel a sustaining drive to pay it forward in whatever ways I can.

Of course, from year to year, our interns come to us with widely varying personalities, skill sets, and work ethic. This year has been an unusually strong one!

Our interns from the '25/'26 school year exceeded expectations at every turn. Charlotte Curnin, Jordan Galloway, and Piraveenaa Vijayakumar, all doctoral students at William James College, added tremendously to every group they were involved with this year. They took more initiative, and dove deeper into their work with clients than any class of interns I can remember. Is there some recency bias on my part here? I'll admit it - that may have entered the equation. There will always be a special place in my heart for the interns who were with us during the pandemic. They had very different experiences than the one they bargained for and were, without exception, bright, conscientious, and flexible. They helped us through what was possibly our most difficult year and I will always be grateful for their work. 

But Charlotte, Jordan, and Piraveenaa are all-stars! They did fantastic work with us all year long - not just fantastic FOR INTERNS - but fantastic work. Period! All three of them are undoubtedly on their way to successful and gratifying careers. They made their groups better for their clients and easier for the counselors with whom they were paired. They will be credits to their field and we will miss having them around. 

For me, there's an additional factor that makes me view interns as more than just free labor. I started my internship during the waning days of Ronald Reagan's presidency. The internet wasn't a thing yet. I was 25 years old and single. Now I'm 63 and married with a kid in college. What I'm saying is that I've been doing this work for a very long time. If I didn't have an abiding passion for it, I never would have stayed with it as long as I have. But, as with any job, it has its ups and downs. There have been stretches when I've been less enthused about it than others. But when a big chunk of my job involves training and collaborating with young people who are as eager to learn and put their knowledge into practice as Charlotte, Jordan, and Piraveenaa, it gets me jazzed about coming into work. All year long, they pushed me to keep learning and thinking in new ways and I'm very thankful for all their hard work. 

So, to Charlotte, Jordan, and Piraveenaa, I want to convey my heartfelt thanks for a great year. For our interns slated to start working during the upcoming school year - Emily Berg, Ella Martinez, and Jaime Rodriguez - the bar has been set very high!