Each school year, Maplewood Middle School hosts interns who are earning their Master of Social Work degrees from a variety of graduate schools in the area. These interns, from Rutgers, Columbia, Fordham, NYU and Kean Universities, provide critical services to students while they gain invaluable clinical experience.
The interns conduct therapy for individual students as well as lead groups that are organized by gender and grade level. The goals are tailored to the students and include fostering social skills and self-esteem, helping children transition to the new world of middle school, and providing help with studying, time management and organizing school work, all of which are important tasks at this age. Groups and individual students work with interns to develop a set of goals they would like to address during sessions, which usually take place during their “alpha” or lunch periods.
Based on these goals, the interns devise case plans to teach resiliency, conflict resolution, and positive social interaction. The work draws from therapeutic theories such as traditional psychodynamic approach, CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychosocial education.
Sounds pretty serious! But these groups are quite lively and fun. Concepts are introduced through games, role-playing, art projects, activities and lots and lots of talking among group members. Many of the students have made new friends through their experiences in a group.
Following social work education protocol, all the interns are supervised by Beth Giladi, Maplewood Middle School’s full-time licensed clinical social worker, (LCSW). Each intern’s individual and group cases are monitored by Ms. Giladi, who meets with interns separately and as a group in weekly supervisory sessions. These sessions provide interns with feedback on their developing clinical skills, keeping them on track with each student the intern sees.
Interns are also involved in school and district-wide events, such as organizing and conducting welcome sessions for all students new to the school district in September; delivering food for the Thanksgiving food drive; and ferrying bags of gifts to families during a holiday toy drive. They also pitch in with community initiatives, including an effort to sign students up for free math tutoring and a campaign to identify families who might benefit from a free or low-cost health insurance plan available through the state.
We are having a wonderful year working with your children. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
All best,
Jessica Bermudez
Peggy O’Crowley
Beverly Rogers
SWI Interns, 2011-2012
