Culminating
Experience
At the conclusion of the MPS in Organizational Leadership program, each student is required to complete a culminating experience or research project to demonstrate and apply their learning. Because my current organization has been so receptive to being a real-world context for my work in this program, I chose LDRS 890 Internship in Organizational Leadership as the concluding experience of my coursework.
Anticipating that I would need to find an assignment to undertake in the spring of 2023, I searched throughout the fall of 2022 for organizational needs that could serve as an effective internship project to complete my degree. It was during a leadership meeting in September that an opportunity presented itself. The team was discussing the number of first-time supervisors in the organization who were learning on the job the skills needed to properly manage employees. Additionally, the team was discussing needed improvements to the supervision template that guides monthly meetings between supervisors and employees. Several members remarked how leadership wanted supervisors to have more personal development conversations with employees, but they felt unprepared to do so with the tools currently available to them. That conversation sparked an opportunity to help my organization and fulfill the requirements of the program.
After conversing with the CEO and the Director of Research and Education, I developed the Internship Proposal to the right. Objectives include increasing employee utilization of the monthly supervision forms, revising the supervision process to include a greater focus on personal development, and the implementation of a peer mentoring program to provide feedback to supervisors and build relational bonds. As you can see in the proposal, the project is still in progress at the time of submission of this portfolio, and a final report on the objectives will be provided in early May 2023.
The experience I have gained over the course of this internship has been an invaluable piece of my education. It has incorporated each of the learning competencies and stretched me to grow in my ability to lead effectively within my organization. I have been blessed by the cooperation of leaders throughout the organization, but success would not have been possible without the kindest of our Sarah, our Director of Research and Education. Her help has been a stark reminder about the power of collaboration and knowledge. I am also appreciative of our CEO Keith, who embodies vision and change-orientation on a daily basis. He has been a constant source of encouragement and empowerment at every step.
My critical thinking skills have been stretched as the project has unfolded, and I look forward to continuing to help improve the supervision process of the organization beyond the scope of this internship. As Winston Churchill said on November 10, 1942: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”