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In practices such as counseling, therapy and developmental psychology that depend on real-world experience and insight, Emmanuel College’s Psychology course structure aims to equip students as much as possible with fundamental skills and experience in the field prior to graduation.
Emmanuel has a 100-hour internship requirement for graduation across all five of its academic schools. The College’s Psychology & Neuroscience Department, however, has an increased requirement with a two-semester Capstone Experience, rooted in a goal of providing their students with full-fledged work experience out in the field, while also not overwhelming them.
Psychology majors at Emmanuel must complete 250 hours of an internship to graduate: which faculty say is both necessary and beneficial, and students focusing on counseling and therapy say prepares them to succeed in the demanding field.
“I feel like that is so helpful for our students,” said Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Helen MacDonald. The longer internship period allows them to get more in-depth experience, their supervisors can write them stronger letters of recommendation and it can expand their range of job offers and graduate school opportunities. Not to mention, she added, employers are often more interested in bringing on interns if they’re going to be staying in the role for longer.
“My experience is people are really impressed with our students – and they want to have other students from Emmanuel [as well],” MacDonald said.
An ongoing internship at Bridges Homeward in Cambridge has been the cornerstone of the Emmanuel experience for Marie Lambiase ’25, who has been an intern there since the start of the semester.
“It’s so important that it’s a requirement,” Lambiase said about the internship period for her major. “If you’re not in it [the field] then you don’t know all the expectations.” She has been spending the first half of the internship doing trainings and familiarizing herself with the work, and looks forward to doing more intensive work in January and beyond, like facilitating parent and child meetings.
A Psychology major with a counseling concentration, Lambiase developed an interest in social work throughout her first few months at Bridges Homeward, and now hopes to get a Master’s and make a career out of it. Lambiase appreciated the opportunity to find her own way as an undergraduate. “I didn’t know I had the interest [in social work] until I found it,” she said.
As part of the Capstone class, students participate in small cohorts that meet bi-weekly with an Emmanuel Psychology faculty member, where they’re able to share their experiences with each other while also learning important life and career skills. To help them get the most out of their internships, students learn how to have difficult conversations in the workplace, how to deal with imposter syndrome and financial planning for life after college, among other things.
Being part of a Capstone group with her peers has been another highlight of the semester for Lambiase, having benefitted from the self-advocacy skills in the course and learning from her peers’ experiences too. “It helps you feel less alone in the internship,” she said.
Neha Dhawan, the Psychology & Neuroscience Department’s Internship Capstone Coordinator, said giving students that agency to find out what they want to do in the field is one of the most beneficial pieces of the experience.
“Neha Dhawan, Psychology & Neuroscience Internship Capstone CoordinatorIt’s incredibly powerful to know what you like and don’t like as an undergraduate… we teach them so much, but it’s different to see it for yourself and actually do it.”
Practical classroom approach
Through coursework fueled by professional experience in the field, Emmanuel’s Psychology faculty aims to prepare students with as much practical experience as they can so they can hit the ground running in not only their Capstone, but post-graduation.
“We have a real sense of wanting to provide real-world examples for the students,” said Professor of Psychology, Dr. Samantha Moshier. The Counseling Theories course puts this into practice for example, providing basic skills and terminology needed for students to conduct a mock intake interview as the class’s penultimate project.
While it’s often found to be challenging at first, students gain valuable practice from it: as was the case for Kylie Gracia ’25, a Psychology major with a concentration in Developmental Psychology. Having practiced an intake interview herself in class, Gracia was familiar when getting involved in those interviews in her Capstone Experience at Child & Family Services over the summer.
She said her professors’ real-life scenarios and perspectives have helped her to develop deeper understanding of the course material throughout her time at Emmanuel, which directly applied to her work over the summer supporting children with emotion regulation, anger management and other tools to cope with trauma.
Focus on mentorship
Despite their different paths and career aspirations, both Gracia and Lambiase had one common denominator across their experience as Psychology majors: the consistent support and mentorship from faculty.
“I’m someone who’s not afraid of office hours,” Gracia said, “so I’m always seeking advice on job applications and what courses to take. They’re all very welcoming as a department – and always so willing to help!”
That support was exactly what Lambiase was hoping for at college.
“That was one thing that was so important to me,” she said, “I wanted to be supported. They really want you to do well.”
