School Counseling Internship

An counseling internship is defined as a supervised learning experience designed to provide a student with the opportunity to implement in an actual work setting the knowledge and theory acquired in the course work. Therefore, the School Counseling Institute curriculum and other practical course work must be completed before the school counseling internship is started. The internship program at NIU is part of the nationally accredited CACREP program and meets the requirements for ISBE PEL with School Counselor Endorsement. CACREP regards internship as "a distinctly defined, post-practicum, supervised clinical experience in which the student refines and enhances basic counseling or student development knowledge and skills, and integrates and authenticates professional knowledge and skills related to program objectives" (CACREP, 2016, Standards Glossary).

The nature and placement of the internship is determined by the SCI participant's career goals. Participants are expected to identify and do their internship in a setting that is congruent with their intended school counseling path (i.e., elementary, middle-school, high school). Because of the diversity of career goals, participant characteristics, and the learning experiences of each participant, the internship must be individually developed. It is the responsibility of the SCI participant to do this in consultation with the SCI Coordinator, the Field-Experience coordinator, and the site supervisor. Placement sites must be able to provide the diverse and comprehensive experience needed for a successful school counseling internship experience.

• In accordance with ISBE PEL:SC licensure endorsement, participants are required to enroll in a minimum of four credit-hours of counseling internship and complete 400 clock-hours of school counseling internship practices in a K-12 school setting.
• An appropriate site supervisor would have a minimum of two years of schoool counseling employment and be credentialed as PEL with endorsement in School Counseling.
• All internship documentation for interns and site supervisors is submitted electronically.