Internship in Psychology (formerly called “practicum in psychology”) is a great course that should be taken by all students who are interested in careers in applied psychology (e.g., counseling, clinical psychology, etc.).
To sign up, note that this course includes an interview process – the nature of the process is outlined in materials disseminated by the Psychology Department during pre-registration (such as the Advising Newsletter) – but if the process is not clear at any point, please contact Jane Lehman (lehmanj@newpaltz.edu) , the Department secretary, for that information.
Currently, the instructor the course is Rebecca Zucker (rebeccajzucker@gmail.com) who can also provide information on this process.
For the course, you’ll need to find a “placement” – an organization that includes work in the field of applied psychology / counseling. We have affiliations with many such organizations in the Valley, and the instructor of this course will be happy to work with students to help set up placements.
In some conditions, a student may want to work for an organization that is not currently “affiliated” with our department. This is not usually too much of a problem – as long as the institution is a genuine professional institution (e.g., a school district or county mental health organization, etc.). You can contact the internship instructor to find out if a particular organization is not affiliated with us. If you would like to work with such an organization for your placement, here are the steps you’ll need to take:
1. Email a link to the website for the organization to the Psychology Department chair (Glenn Geher; geherg@newpaltz.edu) – in this email, indicate that you are interested in taking the internship course and would like to work at suchandsuch a place for your placement. If it seems appropriate, Dr. Geher will email you back indicating so, approving it. Once you have that email in hand, collect it, as you’ll need it for a next step.
2. Obtain a copy of the syllabus for the course (PSY 497) – this can be obtained either by the instructor or from Jane Lehman (lehmanj@newpaltz.edu). A recent version of the syllabus is fine (it need not be the version for an upcoming semester).
3. Obtain the “affiliation agreement” paperwork, also from Jane Lehman (lehmanj@Newpaltz.edu).
4. Work with Jane to complete this paperwork. Once it’s done, forward the completed form, along with written support for the institution from the chair (see Step 1) and the syllabus (see Step 2), to Tammey Gaffney (gaffneyt@newpaltz.edu), who processes these agreements for the university. Here is Tammy’s other contact information in case you need to check on the status:
Procurement Department; Office: HAB 307
Phone: (845) 257-3192
Let us know if you have any questions!
