Psychology Undergraduate Internships Add Insight
Psychology internships for undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, allow them to see classroom lessons in the real world and enter careers with confidence.
Sydney Bull (’25) completed a yearlong internship with the nonprofit McNabb Center, working in a recovery-based high school for students who struggled with substance use.
Now she’s a registered behavior technician for Southeast Behavioral Services, implementing behavioral plans for children with autism, and she wants to pursue a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling.
“I became interested in psychology because I wanted to learn more about how to help people,” said Bull, who minored in child and family studies. “Mental health has become such a prevalent problem in my generation, and I want to make a difference.”
Building Skills
During the internship working with McNabb Center staff, she also spent 200 hours with high school students. “I saw my coursework in action,” Bull said. “I took a Skills for Counseling class my freshman year, and I was able to see how a lot of these skills helped me form stronger relationships with the students.”
“I learned how to connect with them and show them love and respect, no matter where they were on their recovery journeys,” Bull said.
She entered college knowing she wanted to counsel teens and younger children. The internship confirmed that choice and provided her options to reach her goal.
“I think every student should do an internship,” Bull said. “Counseling is a field that is hard to understand fully before you’re in it. Being able to work closely with the staff at the McNabb Center gave me a clearer picture of what they do on a daily basis.”
The UT Department of Psychology encourages students to volunteer and serve internships in a wide variety of organizations, including education, healthcare, nonprofit, and business settings. Psychology internships for undergraduates can offer hands-on learning for students while benefiting the community too.
Serving Community
Myrsine Kostoulas (’25) interned for three semesters at the UT Psychological Clinic, which serves the greater East Tennessee region while providing training and research opportunities.
During the internship she saw real-world examples of what she learned about in a Social Psychology course. “I loved seeing everything that we learned in class appeared in real life,” Kostoulas said.
She worked in the same room where graduate students would take client calls, and she attended staff meetings where the doctoral candidates presented cases to the administrative team, discussing what they had seen and how they wanted to move forward.
She shadowed doctoral students in the Interpersonal and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy course with Associate Professor Leticia Flores, director of the UT Psychological Clinic, and heard her feedback to them.
“It was one of the greatest experiences ever,” said Kostoulas. “It was so amazing to see how they think and how they reasoned through things.”
Kostoulas also worked alongside a graduate student who had been conducting research and presented at UT’s Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA).
A high school psychology class led Kostoulas to pursue her bachelor’s degree, and she minored in human development and family science. She always planned to continue to graduate school but wasn’t sure what type of therapy interested her.
At the clinic, she observed the work of Associate Director Caitlin Williams in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), showing adults ways to positively interact with children who have behavioral or emotional problems. “This is exactly what I want to do,” Kostoulas said.
In July she’ll begin a year of service under the AmeriCorps program in Boston, tutoring middle school students in math. Then she plans to enter a doctoral program and specialize in PCIT.
“Talking to Dr. Williams at the clinic about her training that she does made me passionate about what I want to do,” Kostoulas said.
By Amy Beth Miller