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Reflection Paper

Meggie Hudson

Department of Public Health, Georgia College and State University

KINS 4306: Internship

Dr. Ernie Kaninjing

April 17, 2022

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Introduction

My name is Meggie Hudson and the organization/agency I decided to intern with this

spring semester of 2022 was a public middle school in Baldwin County, Oak Hill Middle School.

I shadowed Coach Dana Peterson over the course of the semester in the PE classroom serving all

grades throughout the day. The school was first built and founded in 2000, and it has been

opened and running ever since. Currently, the school consists of about 1,200 students with 72%

of those students being African American, 21% of the population being White, and 6% being

Hispanic or making up two or more races. Overall, 93% of the students at Oak Hill are from low-

income families which has led to lower test scores that are far below the state average.

Oak Hill serves grades 6th-8th, and the school system offers two additional different

programs to the students – early college and SAGE. SAGE is the gifted program, and early

college is a 7th-12th grade public educational institution that prepares students to complete high

school and some college credit courses. Through this program, students also have the

opportunity to obtain eligibility for the Hope Scholarship. The overall mission statement of

Baldwin County is “Educate students who will graduate college and career ready and become

contributing members of our local and global communities.” More specifically, the goal for Oak

Hill Middle School is excellence where “We lay the educational foundation that your child will

build upon to become successful, contributing members of our 21st century, global society.”

Through the academic and extra-curricular courses, the school strives to implement these goals

to prepare students for the years to come.

Description of Experiences

In the beginning, I was unsure of what to expect going into this internship. All internships

can look different depending on where one’s site is. However, as I adjusted to the expectations of
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my internship in the school setting, I started to understand more of my role and what was needed

from me throughout the semester. My role as an intern had many different components and tasks.

Like I said previously, I have been working alongside with Coach Dana Peterson in the PE

classroom. Some roles that I was responsible for included taking attendance each day, helping in

leading the warm-up exercises, setting up equipment for the various sports played, observing and

grading tests and different assignments, creating various lesson plans/peer-to-peer evaluation

rubrics, and leading students toward excellence and success. In addition, I would be ready for

anything my supervisor needed assistance with.

The best part of my internship was creating and forming different relationships at Oak

Hill with the students and staff. At first, the students and faculty did not know how to feel about

me since I was a new face and a change. However, as time went on, the students and other

teachers started to get more comfortable with me and open up to me. Throughout the semester, I

learned more about my supervisor and her experiences and was able to let her into my life too.

With the students, I had opportunities to listen and be a mentor to them. Personally, for me,

deepening all the relationships that formed here has been the most rewarding part of my

internship. It has been a privilege to have this opportunity and ability to get to be a part of their

community and environment. Although there were many benefits and rewards that came from

this internship, there were also challenges I inevitably faced. A few of those challenges included

learning how to adapt and respond to behavioral issues such as fights, connecting with the

students coming from different backgrounds, and asserting my authority to the students. Through

the benefits and the challenges, I learned a lot about the workplace in a school and about myself.

I wish I had more authority in the classroom so I could contribute more; I just did not have the

capabilities to do certain things without any credentials.

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Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

I never had any experience in an internship, so this was all very new to me. I did not have

many expectations going into the semester, because I honestly did not know what I was getting

myself into. However, looking back, I do believe that my internship at Oak Hill met my personal

expectations in ways I may not have realized were there at first. One personal expectation of

mine that I had hoped to gain through this experience was clarity on whether or not I wanted to

go to graduate school immediately following my undergrad for my Master’s in Teaching. This

internship allowed me to better decide if this was something I could see myself wanting to do in

the future. Although I have decided to pursue a different career path for right now, I still have

learned so much from being at Oak Hill. Another personal expectation of mine that was fulfilled

from being here was learning how to adapt to a full-time work schedule. It definitely was a

challenge at first; however, I have come to appreciate the routine and schedule. It took time to

adjust, but my supervisor was always super accommodating and helpful to meet me where I was

at in different points of the semester.

Overall, Dana Peterson was open to my ideas and contributions that I had to give to the

students in the PE classroom. Because the environment was such a shift for me, I just observed

and took notes from my supervisor at first. However, as I got more comfortable with the students

and the different backgrounds, I was able to input any ideas or thoughts I had that I thought

would be beneficial for the program. My biggest example would be my project where I was able

to create and implement lesson plans, tests, and peer-to-peer evaluations for seven different

sports throughout the semester.

Supervision was a necessity since the circumstances around me were unfamiliar to me.

Coach Peterson did an excellent job overseeing and guiding me but also allowing me to be
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independent and take charge in different areas. She delegated different tasks and gave me the

freedom to make day-to-day decisions. My experience overall has been nothing but good. The

only improvement I would make would be researching and understanding more of the

demographics and differing backgrounds before coming into the new school. I believe adjusting

to how to respond and connect with the students and faculty was my biggest setback at first that

took the most amount of time.

I would most definitely recommend future students to intern at Oak Hill Middle School.

It does not necessarily have to be in the PE classroom either; it could be with the school nurse, in

an academic classroom, etc. I believe students have a lot to gain from Oak Hill, and it is a place

that prepares interns well for the real world. I genuinely could see myself working in the school

setting with students in the future, and I have come to really enjoy this age group too. I am

grateful for this opportunity that I have had at Oak Hill.

Internship Preparedness

As a Public Health major, I feel like I was academically well prepared for my internship

site. Oak Hill has a very wide-range and diverse population of students; thus, I saw many social

determinants of health. From varying courses that I have taken in the past four years at Georgia

College, I learned about what the different determinants were, signs that revealed each

determinant, and how to respond. In addition, I learned how to create, plan, and implement a

program plan that was effective and beneficial. Through these classes, I was able to take what I

learned in the classroom and apply it in my internship over the course of the semester. Many of

my upper-level classes such as Community Health, Health Promotion and Program Planning,

Epidemiology contributed to the knowledge I learned, and they have helped me gain insight and

understanding on how to use what I have learned in my everyday life. I felt super prepared and
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ready to be challenged with a new population of students. However, my biggest barrier that I felt

the least prepared in was asserting my authority over students.

I believe that the School of Health and Human Performance could benefit students by

taking away a class and requiring a practicum the semester before their internship. A practicum

would not have the demand or expectations of a typical internship but instead, allow students to

begin to search and figure out what area of Public Health they would want to intern/work for in

the future. I believe that a practicum would serve students well and better prepare them for real

life application of public health concepts. The practicum would give students more time to figure

out what field they wanted to concentrate on, and it would help students slowly adjust to a work

schedule versus the average schedule of a college student.

Internship Performance

I gained and developed many existing and new skills through my experience at Oak Hill.

A few of those skills included communication, adaptability, patience, engaging students in

classroom participation/presence, promoting healthy life habits, and collaboration with other

teachers. For example, I had to learn quickly how to react and respond to a fight between

students in the classroom. In addition to the soft skills acquired, I also learned how to interact

with the students despite the barriers that were between us i.e., economic status, income, culture,

etc. On the flip side of things, I think there are skills I could sharpen and continue to develop

such as communication, patience, and collaboration. I say these three skills for several reasons.

One, I believe these are skills that one can always improve and grow in. Another reason is that I

believe these skills can differ depending on your work environment. My co-workers here are not

going to be the same as my future co-workers. My current audience are 6th-8th grade students;
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however, that will not be the case this time next year. With a changing population and staff,

communication and collaboration will look different in comparison to what it is now.

I feel overall well satisfied with my performance on assignments, projects, and

presentations. I am a student that stays on top of deadlines, and I strive to put my best foot

forward in all the work I turn in. Due to the full-time work weeks, I had to learn how to manage

my time efficiently in order to stay ahead of my schoolwork. I honestly would rate the quality of

my work an 8/10. There are always improvements that I can make because no one is perfect.

However, I give my best work and I feel like my grades in the class can accurately represent the

rating I have given myself.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

This experience and internship at Oak Hill have impacted me in many aspects of my life

personally, professionally, and academically. Coming into the semester, I was trying to decide

between going to grad school for my Master’s in Teaching or pursuing full-time ministry on the

college campus. Although right now I have decided to pursue to go on staff with Campus

Outreach, an interdenominational college ministry, I still have learned so much from interning

here. It has affirmed my calling to work with students for my target audience and it has given me

a drive to go back to school one day even if I do not know for what yet. It has also revealed

things that I do not want to do such as work in a county that only has one public middle school.

Through my experience, I was able to grow my confidence in working with younger students,

and I have deepened personal relationships that I formed at the school. A piece of advice was

given to all students before beginning any internships which encouraged students to make the

most of your internship; what you put in is what you will get out. I found this to be quite true in

my own experience. There are days that you are tired. There will be days when you do not feel
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like going in. You may even question “What is the point?” I learned, however, even though I will

not be going into teaching post-graduation, there was still so much that I had gained and

benefitted. I had the privilege to watch students grow academically and personally, I contributed

to the staff members of Oak Hill by helping out where it was needed, and I was able to mentor

the youth population of Baldwin County. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity and all the

things it taught me through it.