Internships give students valuable insight into future careers

Heartspring is no stranger to the world of academia. In fact, Dr. Martin Palmer founded Heartspring in 1934 as the department of speech sciences at the University of Wichita (now Wichita State University). In the beginning, the newly formed department, which later became known as the Institute of Logopedics and now Heartspring, concentrated its efforts on training new instructors. Over the last 75 years, college students have been working closely with Heartspring specialists and clients as they complete coursework to obtain their degrees.

Although Heartspring no longer has an exclusive relationship with an institution of higher learning, students in a variety of degree fields including special education, psychology, speech-language pathology, occupational and physical therapies, audiology, social work, nursing, medicine and other specialties from colleges and universities across the region continue to learn from our teachers, therapists, specialists and most importantly, our children. Undergraduate and graduate students complete observations, internships and practicum requirements at Heartspring through the Heartspring School, Heartspring Pediatric Services and the Heartspring Hearing Center. 

Reinforcing an important decision
Most students apply for internships as a means to not only gain experience, but also reinforce that their chosen field of study is in fact something they enjoy and want to dedicate their time and effort.

Melissa Feeney was a physical therapy intern at Heartspring Pediatric Services from January through April 2009, preparing for her degree in sport science from the University of Kansas. “My time at Heartspring confirmed my decision to pursue physical therapy because I was able to see and experience firsthand both the joys and the frustrations that are inherent to the profession,” she said. “The joys were apparent when a child reaches a significant milestone or achieved goal, but the frustrations were also present when a ‘plan of action’ did not work out as hoped. However, both ends of the spectrum are vital to the profession because the joys reinforce the benefits of physical therapy while the frustrations provide an opportunity for learning and creative adaptation, forcing the clinician to utilize critical thinking skills to come up with an alternative approach that may prove more effective.” While at Heartspring, Feeney worked with physical therapist Cheryl Jabara, who also took advantage of internships while in school. “Speaking from experience, when I was in high school and college I did both internships and practicums,” said Jabara. “In both cases it allowed me to see various career options and helped me figure out what I really wanted to do when choosing a career.”

Finding a niche
“Internships are critical to knowing what you are getting into and if it is really a good fit for you,” said Lindsay Salomon, director of school therapies and applied technology. “To really find your niche in a career, you need to be comfortable working with and in the environment. Until you have observed or interned in a variety of settings, you will not have all the information you need to make the best decision.”

Steven Rundle is a senior exercise science and pre-physical therapy major at Wichita State University (WSU). Unsure of what area of physical therapy in which to specialize, he selected Heartspring for his internship as he had not worked with children before. “I shadowed physical therapists in nursing homes as well as outpatient facilities,” he said. “I thought it would be a great learning experience for me to see what all goes on in a pediatric setting.” After working with the children and staff at Heartspring Pediatric Services, Rundle expressed how rewarding it is to work with children “Seeing how much the therapists at Heartspring love their jobs and care about their patients has definitely influenced me,” he said. “Doing my internship at Heartspring was a great experience.”

Not only can internships help students determine what specialty they might like to pursue, it also helps them gain the self-confidence needed to work with children with special needs. “Some students are initially apprehensive about interacting with students in the Heartspring School due to the challenging behaviors that accompany their disabilities,” said Shannon Ratermann, physical therapist. Salomon agreed. “They had been scared about the unpredictability of some of the student behaviors and knowing how to teach them and help them learn to communicate,” she said. “By the end of their internships, they were comfortable around our students and filled their toolbox with knowledge and strategies that make them more at ease working with children with autism and other disabilities.”

Heartspring: A one-of-a-kind facility
Selecting the right organization for an internship is important. Heartspring offers students the opportunity to work with children with a variety of disabilities and gives them access to distinguished professionals in multiple fields.

Because the children at Heartspring have a unique and challenging profile of special needs, the students at WSU’s department of communication sciences and disorders benefit greatly from the opportunity to work with the children and learn from the staff according to Dr. Kathy Coufal, professor and department chair. “The professionals at Heartspring are outstanding clinicians and teachers,” said Coufal. “They provide clinical teaching for WSU students in the context of practicum experiences that is essential. (The students) find the professionals at Heartspring to be ‘awesome’ and are continually impressed with the complexity of clinical problems the staff unravel with seeming ease.”

Originally from Wichita, Mika Scates is working toward an associate degree as an occupational therapy assistant from Pueblo Community College in Pueblo, Colorado. Her internship at the Heartspring School was an extremely positive experience. “My time at Heartspring was a growing experience and has enriched the skills, tools and character needed to help me become a better occupational therapy assistant,” she said.

Scates also learned what it takes to really make a difference in the lives of children like the students at Heartspring. “The children need team members who can serve as an advocate, encourager, educator and assistant to them as they strive toward independence in their daily activities.”

Spending time in Heartspring Pediatric Services, Feeney said she felt privileged to interact with so many children with different special needs. “Even though the same diagnosis was oftentimes seen on multiple patients’ charts, albeit Down syndrome, autism, developmental delay, etc., I was amazed at how each physical therapy session was carefully tailored to the needs of the individual child. I learned from Heartspring that that this concept of ‘personalized physical therapy’ is vital to achieving the best outcomes.”

Currently Feeney is pursuing her doctorate in physical therapy (DPT) at the University of Kansas Medical School and hopes to be able to work with children following graduation. “I would love to work at a facility like Heartspring once I receive my DPT,” she said. “Pediatric physical therapy provides both a challenging and rewarding opportunity, and I would jump at the chance to accept it.”

Real life application
Participating in internships and practicums at Heartspring allows students to see how their coursework can be applied in real world situations. “It moves the abstract to the real,” said Heartspring psychologist, Bruce Hauser, PhD. “It can help the student see that what they are learning to do has value when applied correctly.”

“One of the toughest things for recent graduates is not having enough hands-on experience with kids,” said Kimberly Becker, director of Heartspring Pediatric Services. “I think we do our part in providing them with real life experiences with knowledgeable professionals.”

Heartspring also partners with Dr. Julie Scherz, department of communication sciences and disorders associate professor and graduate coordinator at WSU, who oversees the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) curriculum. Children with autism and other communication disorders at Heartspring can benefit from a wide range of interventions using low-tech and high-tech AAC devices. She is pleased with the collaboration between the two programs. “The students have appreciated seeing the ‘real world’ application of information and concepts that we discuss in the classroom,” said Scherz. “They appreciate the opportunity to see a different facility from our campus clinic, and how different approaches achieve similar outcomes.”

Catalyst to career
Danica Seirer was unsure of what career path she was going to follow until she took an introduction to communication sciences and disorders course at WSU. “The class definitely sparked my interest and I became curious about the field and about Heartspring,” she said. Seirer was curious enough to apply for a paraeducator position at Heartspring while still working toward her degree. “I fell in love with the population,“ she said. “The real life experience of working with children with a variety of diagnoses, such as autism, and the communication challenges they faced really made my classes come alive.” In addition to being a direct care staff in one of Heartspring’s group homes, Seirer also completed her practicum on campus. “Heartspring’s population has always been where my passion for communication has been,” she said. Following graduation, Seirer was hired as a speech-language pathologist in the Heartspring School. “This is a positive environment. I love the little daily victories that come with working with this population.”

Nikki Haukap also has a passion for working with individuals with disabilities. That passion led her to apply for a physical therapy internship at Heartspring Pediatric Services. Haukap received her degree in exercise science and pre-physical therapy from WSU in 2008 and has been working as a therapy aid at Heartspring ever since. “(Working here) has encouraged me to shoot for the stars,” she said. “Each client is unique and being able to adapt any activity for each child is fun and rewarding.”

For Abby Manahan, her Heartspring experience began with Camp SSTAR, a summer camp for children with Asperger syndrome and high functioning autism. “During the summer of 2008 I volunteered to help with Camp SSTAR because I wanted to learn more about the social communication aspect of Asperger’s,” said Manahan. That experience led her seek employment at the Heartspring School as a speech-language pathologist. “Overall, I wanted to help individuals become functional communicators and improve their quality of life,” she said. “I have enjoyed learning how to better assist (Heartspring students) in becoming an integral part of their community.”

Going global
As a worldwide center for children with special needs, Heartspring not only seeks to help provide a better life for children around the world, but to also present learning opportunities to teachers and specialists from other countries. In 2009, three speech-language pathology students from Denmark participated in a clinical experience at Heartspring through WSU. After inquiring about the possibility of the students spending time at Heartspring for observation and training, Coufal was pleasantly surprised when staff offered to host the Danish students for the entire month. “The students realized a unique experience that would not be possible in their home country and were benefitted greatly by the depth and breath of knowledge the professionals demonstrated,” said Coufal. “As a clinical learning experience, these three young women affirmed that this was even more than they hoped for. They were in awe of the complexity of the students’ needs and the programs offered at Heartspring.”

Most recently, during the month of May, two special education students from the Philippines spent three weeks on the Heartspring campus observing classes and therapies. “Coming to Heartspring has widened my horizon of what special education is all about,” said Dinah Siasoco. “Back home we were taught theories. At Heartspring we saw the theories being implemented and coming to life in the form of highly organized structure, fully-credentialed staff, competent special education teachers, systematic evaluations and of course, students who have tremendously improved based on the thrust of putting together the proper methodology and (having staff who are) not afraid to constantly change it in order to achieve the goal.

Future opportunities
Recognizing that we have much to offer undergraduate and graduate students, Heartspring is working to formalize the process in which we partner with universities and provide training to students not only in the state of Kansas, but across the nation and around the world.

Heartspring’s collaboration with WSU’s department of communication sciences and disorders also continues to grow. Students within the program are developing new research endeavors based on observation experiences and Scherz and Coufal meet regularly with Salomon and Becker to discuss ways to enrich experiences for both programs.

With an increased emphasis on technology, Heartspring has been working with professors in the department of electrical engineering at Kansas State University to procure funding for design and implementation of technology engineering projects based on the needs of Heartspring students. Additionally, the Heartspring board of trustees added a science and technology committee that meets quarterly to discuss how to bring research-level science and technology ideas and projects to our campus, said Chris Vacek, chief innovation officer at Heartspring. “The aim of our relationships with colleges and universities is to help our students be more independent, and also to contribute our solutions to the wealth and knowledge available in scientific and academic circles of special education,” he said.

Heartspring is enthusiastic about building relationships with colleges and universities. Creating structured, long-term partnerships will enable even more access to learning and help shape the future of educating and caring for children with special needs.