Assignment Title: How to write an internship experience reflection paper
Course: CHMN 699 - Internship
Student: Kristine Sage
2022
Professor: Dr. Mary Smith
Liberty University
How to write an internship experience reflection paper
When you write your reflective essay, use the following steps as a guide to evaluate your internship
experience:
1. Describe your overall experience in the introduction
Your introduction should be a paragraph and summarize your internship role, where you completed
your internship and what your purpose was for completing your internship. You may use the first-person
perspective but avoid including your opinions. Your introduction should provide insight into your overall
experience.
2. Discuss how you met your goals
Depending on your internship experience, the body of your essay should be one to three
paragraphs. Start with a description of your goals and the projects or tasks you performed to achieve
these goals. Your reflection should also cover how achieving your goals can support your academic or
career development.
3. Discuss how your internship contributed to the organization
The remaining part of the body of your reflection paper should highlight how accomplishing your
goals supported the organization. You can accomplish this by giving examples that show improvements
or changes you made during your internship. For example, provide details about new skills you learned
and how this helps you. Any feedback from supervisors or teammates that you received is also an
example of recognition of your contributions and motivation to succeed.
4. Conclude with how your internship can contribute to your growth
In your concluding paragraph, briefly describe how your overall experience can contribute to your
academic growth and future goals. For instance, give examples of new skills you learned and how you
can apply them in future projects. Relate your internship experience with succeeding in your education
or professional training. Your conclusion should make a definitive connection between changes,
improvements or developments you made during your experience with your current studies.
5. Proofread your writing
Revise your writing for clarity and keep your essay between 300 and 700 words. An excellent
strategy for catching errors you might miss the first time is having a friend or family member read your
essay and note any mistakes. Ensure you have three paragraphs that highlight the most important
aspects of your experience. If you feel two body paragraphs are more adequate for effectively
communicating your internship experience, you can include them, but try to keep your essay no longer
than three paragraphs.
Tips for writing your internship reflection
Consider the following tips when you write your internship reflection paper:
Describe actions and activities. Give details about the actions you took to achieve your
objectives and try to avoid giving your opinions too much unless you have facts that support your
perspectives.
Avoid unnecessary details. Keep your reflection paper focused on the most relevant details. For
instance, you can include how your experience supported your skill development and confidence in your
profession, but including details about how this can help you improve your relationships with distant
family might not apply to your reflection.
Keep it concise. Keep related topics together and stick with a basic essay format with an
introduction, body and conclusion. This can help you narrow down your focus to specific experiences
that helped you accomplish your goals.
Template for an internship experience paper
The following template gives an example of a general essay outline, which is an excellent format for
writing your reflection:
[Introduction: Introduce where you took part in your internship, the daily activities you completed
and the relevance of your experience to your academic program or professional development.]
[Main body: Describe the projects you completed and how these tasks contributed to the
organization. Give examples of what you learned, such as a new skill or method. You can include up to
three paragraphs within the body of your reflection, but only if the details apply to how you applied
your skills and achieved an accomplishment in your experience.]
[Conclusion: Conclude your reflection with an explanation of how your internship experience can
contribute to and support your overall academic achievement or professional growth.]
Example of an internship experience paper
The following example illustrates an internship reflection sample to help you outline and write your
own:
My internship as a student teacher for M.S. Thomas Elementary School has been the most
rewarding and motivational experience I have had during my time as a student at the University of
North Carolina. I connected with my students, cooperating teacher and other school staff, all of
whom supported my growth as a teacher both directly and indirectly.
With such empathetic, compassionate and supportive mentors, this experience has helped me
achieve my goal of completing my bachelor's program for my degree in education. Because of the
lessons I learned not only from my supervisor and cooperating teacher but from my students, too,
I'm confident that I can continue to grow and develop professionally and in my personal
endeavors. Within my student teaching internship, there were two distinct learning experiences
that stand out to me as the most influential aspects of my development this semester: community
involvement with student achievement and classroom management.
Throughout my internship experience, I fostered a truly positive and compassionate learning
environment for my students, through the support and mentorship of my cooperating teacher.
Through the application of time management, organization, discipline and consistent practice, my
classroom management skills improved. My development both managing the daily processes
within the classroom and planning and delivering effective lessons and assessments directly
affected the academic gains of my students.
Through engaging activities and methodologies for supportive learning, my students could
make significant gains in both reading comprehension and fluency. Besides academic gains in
reading concepts, my students also made substantial gains in math fluency, including number
sense and operations and recognizing patterns in numbers.
I'm confident in my students' progress and my growth and development. I would not have the
knowledge or skills I have today if it were not for my internship experience with my students and
cooperating teacher, and I look forward to where my career in education takes me in the future.
