1. Katelyn Morris
KVC Internship
Dec. 17- Jan 16
Learning Objectives
There were three main learning objectives for my KVC internship at the Ottawa branch
which ran from December 17, 2014 until January 16, 2015 which were to gain experience
working in a professional work setting, meet and talk to social workers form KVC about social
work as a possible career and talk about the positives and negatives of being a social worker, and
make connections that will help me to find a job after graduation in May. I strongly believe that I
accomplished all of these tasks during my time at KVC.
Gain experience working in a professional work setting
In order to gain experience in a professional work setting I went to work as an intern at
KVC. No one told me a dress code but I assumed that no jeans were allowed and that it was
more appropriate to wear dress pants each day. However, one of the helpers did wear leggings as
pants to work several times and I never heard any type of comment about it. No one ever wore
jeans that I noticed.
I arrived on time each day and had my own work space in the main room. Dawn, or
whomever I was working with for the day, would give me a list (or pile) of things to do and I
would work on that mostly by myself until I was finished and I would either leave or get more
work to do.
Like any other work environment that I have been in, the more comfortable the other
employees were around each other the less professional they became. Inappropriate jokes and
cuss words were heard all over but never to a non-employee and never towards me (because I

2. have no established relationship with anyone there). I can imagine that this is a stressful job,
particularly when dealing with parents that aren’t cooperative so blowing off steam is normal.
However, I was less than impressed by this. I know realistically that it is natural human habit and
that I myself act the same way at my job but I suppose that I expected more from this “real
world” than the college one that I am currently in. I know that I shouldn’t because I have forever
been listening to my sister and mother complain about their coworkers but we always have high
expectations that reality sometimes doesn’t meet. Overall I still believe that KVC did prepare me
more for the professional workplace.
Meet and talk to social workers from KVC about social work as a possible career and the
positives and negatives of the chosen profession
Throughout my internship I talked with Dawn, Janice, and Cynthia about what they like
and dislike about their jobs. Everyone liked that they feel like they are helping people. It’s like
getting paid to do volunteer work but you’re not getting paid much since it’s a nonprofit. They
particularly liked that they’re helping kids but disliked that the parents aren’t particularly easy to
work with and don’t always work hard to get their kids back. Some just give up and that’s
frustrating. Katie and I both ran into the problem of whether or not we felt that the parents
actually deserved to get their kids back. If a parent is so bad that they are harmful to their child
then do they really deserve to have that child even if they change their ways? That kid will
remain affected for their entire life especially depending on what age they were when first
harmed. I have a lot of conflicts with this not only because I want what is best for the kids but I
can also feel for the parents. In my inside out class there were several moms that had children
either living with family or put into foster care because no family was readily available.
Undoubtedly they were deemed unfit parents because of their drug use or whatever their charges

3. may have been. And I see how they were taking classes and working towards becoming a better
person as well as getting clean for themselves and their family. It’s easy to side with either view
when you immediately know someone form that side but it’s hard for me at this time to justify
sending kids back to their parents that technically abused them in some way even though I can
rationalize that, while the parents made that choice, they also felt pressure form society
somehow. It is all very conflicting.
Because of this I am not sure that I could work in foster care. I think if I were to work
with the children I would have trouble forgiving and helping the parents. I would also be
conflicted when a child doesn’t want to return home but has to because their parent completed
the necessary tasks. I would rather have a job just working with the kids than working with both
kids and parents. Perhaps an adoption agency is what I would prefer since those kids are already
past the point of being able to go back home to their biological parents.
Network to make connections that will be helpful in finding a job after graduation in May
Since going to KVC as an intern I have been able to add Dawn and KVC to my resume.
There are jobs within KVC that aren’t social worker positions that don’t require more than a
bachelor’s degree. Knowing Dawn and Stacy from the Lenexa branch will help if I decide I want
to start off in the foster and adoption fields before deciding to move on to graduate school. Stacy
has mentioned before knowing people from other similar organizations that she could connect
me to, and I’m sure Dawn does as well. Just being able to list KVC on my resume at all is a big
help since my degree isn’t actually in a sociology field but it at least gives me some sort of
backing on my sociological interests.