For over 25 years, TUH-Episcopal Campus has provided internship opportunities for Master of Social Work (MSW) students from several programs, including Temple University’s School of Social Work. Interns are mentored one-on-one by experienced social workers, gaining essential experience in the field, and are often hired at Episcopal or other Temple sites after graduation.
In recognition of Episcopal’s longstanding reputation for excellence and its students’ success on campus, Temple University’s School of Social Work recently honored Episcopal with its Outstanding Practicum Agency Award.
“Winning this award is a significant accomplishment,” says Briana Stinson, LCSW, Episcopal’s Director of Therapeutic Programming, who leads the effort to connect MSW students with social workers. “I’m proud of this work because I believe it’s crucial to invest in the next generation of clinicians. Being involved in their learning and professional growth is incredibly exciting.”
Individualized Attention and Experience
Stinson pairs MSW students with a member of our social work team based on interests and personality. To ensure a good match, she sets up a meet-and-greet and a tour of campus.
“We usually have our Temple students for an entire school year, and by the time they finish, they can run a caseload independently,” Stinson says. “Some interns—like Kelly Kulp, MSW, LSCW, who is now our Director of Care Management—actually stay for two years.”
Depending on the social worker they’re paired with, an intern may spend most of their time on the Acute Unit, the Extended Acute Unit (EAU), or the Crisis Response Center (CRC), but the staff will go out of their way to ensure they can explore their other interests.
“A lot of times, EAU students will go to the acute floors, so they can get a taste of the pace difference and how quickly that unit moves,” explains Elly Gerhardt, LSW, an Episcopal Social Worker currently mentoring interns. “We’ve had interns do rounds in the CRC, the Emergency Department, and even with our Drug and Alcohol team, so they can understand how to do assessments and find placements. We want our students to be well-rounded in all that social work has to offer.”
“I always tell the students when they come in, ‘You get what you want out of this internship,’” Stinson says. “If a student has a particular interest and makes their needs known, we’ll do everything we can to get them that experience.”
Set Up for Success
Behavioral Health Community Liaison Yvonne Williams, MSW, LSW—herself a former Episcopal intern—has had more students go on to be hired after being paired with her than any other social worker.
Her secret? “I treat this as employment and not as an internship,” she says. “It’s a work environment for them, and they catch on and learn well.”
Although Williams is no longer working with interns directly, her colleagues still look to her for her training expertise—and students continue to benefit from what other social workers call “Yvonne Boot Camp.”
“All of us will consult with Yvonne if there’s a learning curve for an intern,” Gerhardt says. “We’ve all had conversations with her like, ‘How do we teach this? How can we better support our interns?’”
Gerhardt emphasizes that the team works hard to recognize and support each intern’s strengths and interests, and tailors their internships to fit these needs.
“Our interns are just like us,” she explains. “We all have our positive qualities and preferences for what we like to do. That’s why we try to figure out their strengths and help them use them to achieve their goals.”
“I Really Want to Go to Temple”
Episcopal’s commitment to going above and beyond for their students, and its reputation for giving them the experience necessary for a successful social work career, has made the campus a popular destination for interns.
“Students discuss their experiences in their internships with their classmates and professors,” says LJ Rasi, LSW, Episcopal’s Director of Behavioral Health and another former intern. “Our interns tend to talk about how much autonomy and independence we give them, which makes other students very interested in our program. We’ll go through all the hoops necessary to get them what they need, and our reputation for doing so means that we have a much higher number of applicants than we do internship spots.”
“A lot of our current interns are referred from previous interns who had a positive experience,” Gerhardt agrees. “They heard about us and decided, ‘I really want to go to Temple.’”
And when it’s time to figure out where to start their careers, Temple is also many interns’ first choice. “Last year, we had an open position, and five of our seven interns applied,” Rasi says. “We didn’t have to do any external recruiting, and it was a tough decision, because they were such great candidates.”
With this track record of success, it’s easy to see why Episcopal was singled out with the Outstanding Practicum Agency Award—and it looks like the program is only becoming more popular.
“I just got back from vacation, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I already have so many students reaching out to me for internship placements,’” Stinson laughs.