Throughout the past academic year, one of our graduate student interns, Sheryl Rosales, has been working with us on a culminating project for her Master of Arts in Developmental Psychology at Ateneo de Manila University. Sheryl has been supporting the Eleison team in developing a new community mental health education (CMHE) module pertaining to healthy communication. This module discusses unhealthy and healthy forms of communication and concrete strategies for practicing healthy communication.
In describing her experience at Eleison, Sheryl noted how interning at Eleison gave her the opportunity to learn more about trauma-informed care, human trafficking, and gender-based violence (GBV) while also strengthening her knowledge and skills in a cross-disciplinary setting:
“I started my internship with little knowledge on working with survivors of human trafficking and GBV. I learned about trauma-informed practices and the value of Motivational Interviewing (MI). My most prized learning is the process of integrating practices and perspectives from different fields in the material development. I am a Developmental Psychology graduate student, and I worked with a team whose expertise is in Social Work and Clinical Psychology. It was one of the most enriching experiences I had as a graduate student, and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to work with an organization like Eleison.”
Per Sheryl, Eleison’s supportive working environment and collaborative team culture was instrumental to the success of her culminating project. She said:
“The Eleison team was exceptionally supportive and helpful in every step of the way. I appreciate the team’s generosity of their time and resources throughout the module development process, from the initial meetings, outline development until the pilot run. The team was very patient in pointing out how to improve the module further, aligned with the organization’s best practices.”
According to Sheryl, the mentorship and teamwork she experienced at Eleison allowed her to grow both as a professional and as a person. She encouraged other students to consider interning at Eleison:
“Being an intern at Eleison was such a good opportunity to immerse myself. It is a great place to learn because the team is very generous with inputs and feedback, and they ensure that you are well-supported as an intern to perform your tasks. It is not every day that you get to work with an organization that values collaboration and excellence on how they work and relate to each other. So, take advantage of every learning opportunity and intentionally apply every learning to be a better student, practitioner, professional, and human being.”
If you are a graduate student who is interested in an internship at Eleison, please reach out to us to explore possible opportunities.
