Practicum Applicaton Process: Not so much fun

I'm getting ready to mail out Practicum applications to 7 sites tomorrow for the 2009-10 practicum training year, which begins late summer. Practicum is essentially an entry-level internship where you gain practical experience working in a clinical setting (for free) doing various tasks such as conducting client assessments (using intelligence and personality tests, as well as other measures to identify ADHD, Autism and other organic conditions), doing intake interviews and possibly even some therapy.

I applied to a variety of sites from a residential treatment center to social service agencies and private practices. The application process is competitive and stressful, as I read and re-read and re-re-read my CV, cover letters and writing sample to check for mistakes. Once applications are mailed sites may call you for an interview immediately, or they may wait several weeks (no stress!), but no site may offer a student a position until the official offer date of March 23 at 9am. Suffice to say none of you may call me on that date at that time as I'll be waiting by the phone hoping to get offers from my top choices.

Although I look forward to gaining additional practical experience, adding in an extra 16-24 hours a week of unpaid work, along with a full course load and part-time job will surely prove to be challenging. Ah, the life of a grad student!

On a less-stressful note, a drop in fuel prices made airline ticket prices drop too, so Lauren & I are headed east to visit the Winn Family and the Emerald Isle in 1 month. Can't wait! (Perhaps the occasional snippets of free time in the grad student's life aint so bad after all.)

M, I want to take lots of pictures like this and this so arrange all that for me, ok?