Blog Assignment 2

1) Briefly describe your internship site. Provide background information of your agency that you work in this semester (e.g. location, services offered, population served, etc). 

My internship site is at Montclair Community Pre-K. Montclair Community Pre-K is an early childhood education facility that provides the quality of education of a private school, and has a strong focus on diversity and inclusion that gives the students the strong education that they need to succeed. The children attending school here are ages three through five. The pre-k is located in Montclair off of Bloomfield Avenue. In addition to providing a classroom education for students, they also offer the services of the Developmental Learning Center which provides services to children who may have special needs or may need services from Speech-language pathologists or therapists.

2) Discuss why you chose this site and how you think it may play a role in your future career goals. 

I chose this site because I knew I wanted to work with children with various disabilities. The Montclair Community Pre-k offered me a chance to work with children with speech and language problems in the classroom and the opportunity to shadow the speech language pathologists that work at the developmental learning center. I chose this site because there are multiple different children I get to work with every day in various different settings, and because I get to observe many different professionals in action. Since I want to be a pediatric speech language pathologist, this was one of the best internships for me to choose since it will give me the opportunity to see a speech language pathologist in action and learn from observing them first hand. This will play a role in my future career goals because it will show m what a typical day is like with a speech pathologist and will show me some of the challenges they face and some of the things they deal with behind the scenes. Coming up with my own speech and language activities to do with the children will benefit me because it will help me to prepare and develop ideas that I could use when working with clients in the future. This will also be beneficial because it will help me to learn how to understand and prepare to work with children with various language disorders.

3) Describe the physical aspects of the agency site and the neighborhood surrounding site.

Outside of the pre-k there is a garden that is laid alongside that leads to the front entrance of the school. The pre-k has about 16 classrooms that have children from age’s three to five. It is very clean and neat inside and when you walk in there is a front desk to check into a few downstairs classrooms and the nurse’s office and directors’ office. There are three floors with classrooms, and the second floor also houses the developmental learning center. There is a separate building on the pre-k’s property called the annex, where they have some other activities such as music. Surrounding the annex is a big fenced in playground that has benches and tables as well as a small garden area with rocks and stepping stones. The Pre-k is right across from Hillside elementary school, and is right off of Bloomfield Avenue. It used to be a major landmark that you could see when driving up Bloomfield Avenue but now it is difficult to see with the newly built hotel and apartment building complex. The area is very nice, clean and safe.

4) Although you are just starting your internship describe your initial impression of the strengths and weaknesses of the agency i.e. what areas is the agency strong and in what areas are they lacking?

I cannot currently find any weaknesses of the agency but I definitely think that there are lots of strengths. The strengths are the diversity in the community, and in the staff which are welcoming to all and are very easy for the students and family members to relate to. Another strength is the location. Bloomfield Avenue is roughly in the middle of Montclair which makes the school easy to access for parents and students from all over town. It is in walking distance from several major locations such as the YMCA and the Walnut Street Station and bus stops. Another strength of the agency is that they offer classes for students with special needs so that they can get the attention that they need and deserve so they can succeed. Another strength is how the Pre-k offers speech language pathology services for the students, since there are many students who have difficulties with speech and language.

5) Identify the funding source(s) for this agency (i.e. state, federal etc.)

This school I believe is state funded.

6) Tell us if you think there is an opportunity for full-time work once you graduate. Why or why not?

There may be an opportunity for me to work their once I graduate. It is possible that they would consider hiring me as a teacher’s assistant. However, I plan on going directly to graduate school for speech and language pathology, so I am currently uninterested in that job. There would not be a job available for me as a speech language pathologist now because you have to have your masters in order to practice as a speech language pathologist.