My internship experience was by far one of the most challenging but rewarding experiences in my doctoral studies. For my advanced internship, I independently instructed an undergraduate course called: EDUC 372: Human Development and Learning. This course focused primarily on the development and learning of adolescent students (middle and high school). I did not expect that instructing a course required so much time and effort. Even more surprising was how emotional it could be in terms of dealing with students’ personal issues. In the future, I need to take on more of an instructor role as opposed to a “friend” role. Specifically, several students were dealing with difficult personal situations and reached out to me for advice. These issues ranged from abusive personal relationships to issues with parents. Although I do want my future students to be able to confide in me, I spent a lot of time listening to their problems while they cried in my office.

In addition to the personal side of being a professor, I also learned a lot about real life student motivation and assessment. Most of the students were motivated individuals who participated in class discussions and completed their assignments in a timely fashion. However, there were few who rarely attended class and lacked the motivation to achieve. I tried many different approaches to increase their motivation by trying to come up with examples or activities that may be intrinsically interesting to them. I also reached out personally to them through emails and comments on their papers. At the end, though, only one student out of the two had responded to my concerns and was therefore able to pass the course.

Another issue that I struggled with was trying to balance all of my work. It was very difficult to balance my modern measurement class responsibilities, 20 hr/week assistantship, personal research endeavors, and teaching demands in that one semester. I know that it is even more critical to be able to balance all of these tasks as a future professor.

Overall, this experience has reinforced my decision to one day become a professor. Even though teaching is time consuming, I enjoyed teaching college students and look forward to my future career as a professor.