UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls

Criminology Internships

 

Boys Totem Town Internship

398 Totem Rd.
St. Paul, MN 55119
651-292-6262

https://www.ramseycounty.us/boystotemtown



Interns indicate duties performed

  • Supervise clients in institutional treatment programs, provide safety and security of institutional residents, staff and visitors by controlling behavior.

Students identified positive aspects of this placement

  • Contact with clients to provide case supervision and guidance and to direct or monitor institutional activities. (2007)
  • I really enjoyed this internship with very helpful staff that are willing to give you a great learning experience. I was able to experience the entire facility from orientation to release. The best part was working with the residents both one-on-one and in groups. (2005)
  • Its a correction institution, helps kids, that's positive. (2004)
  • Working with juveniles, great staff, simple but necessary supervision, wide range of activities, excellent life experience (2000)
  • Being able to maybe influence the life of a child in a positive way. (1997)
  • The friendly and helpful staff you work with and the positive attitude there. Somewhat flexible schedule. (1996)
  • The staff that you work with are very good and helpful, you get involved in a lot of different activities. If there are other things you want to see outside of Boys Town, the staff will set it up for you. You develop knowledege and skills of basic group facilities. Great overall experience! ((1996)
  • Good staff to work with, good programs, gain good supervising experience. Learn a lot from the juveniles by doing treatment contract (contract talk). (1995)
  • The one on one interaction with individuals and working with knowledgeable people in youth corrections. (1995)
  • BTT was a good starting point. I learned all about how the system works, what type of boys I will be dealing with, the process I need to go through in order to pursue a career as a probation officer. I was able to meet probation officers, judges, supervisors and that will be useful when it comes time for a job. (1995)
  • I highly recommend the program at BTT for any student who is sincere about working one-on-one with youths in the juvenile justice system. The atmosphere at BTT is one where you can put in as much or as little effort into it as you want. However, once you begin to develop a relationship with these boys, you discover that you will want to do all that you possibly can to provide them with the skills necessary to make it on the outside. (1994)
  • Gained good experience working with juveniles. (1993)

Students identified difficulties typical in this placement

  • Work environment conditions may be depressing, such as poverty, child abuse and neglect. some boys may end up back in the program. Also violations and fees are given up making a tense situation. (2007)
  • Learning boundaries in relation to the residents and staying calm in occasional stressful situations. (2005)
  • The residents are kids and can be stressful at times. (2004)
  • Idle time, authority over residents, mostly nighttime hours, not paid for hours. (2000)
  • There really are no difficulties I could see. (1996)
  • Sometimes hard to deal with individual's behavior, get too close to some of the residents and you have to remember why they are there. Residents are very manipulative and may try to intimidate you at times. (1996)
  • Not being able to communicate with individuals because they don't often tell the truth. Also, they don't listen to interns as well as they do regular staff until you've been there for awhile. (1995)
  • I feel that the most difficulty I had was the time of day. Some of my time was during the morning hours and that was when the boys were in class so I had to find other things to do, which wasn't that difficult, but I wanted to observe the residents more than I was able to. (1995)
  • There's some initial uneasiness, not knowing what to expect. Gets better once you meet the boys. (1994)