Your education should connect with the work you are preparing to do. For some students, that means finding a job or internship. For others, it means completing supervised experience toward addiction counseling licensure. And if you already work in a nonprofit organization or counseling center, it may mean bringing more intentional mentoring and academic reflection into your current role.
City Vision’s internship, practicum, and job search course sequence is designed around those different starting points. It connects planning, finding an appropriate work setting, and learning through supervised experience. The goal is not simply to add another course to your schedule. It is to help you connect your studies with employment, professional preparation, and growth in your work.
The right next step depends on your current job, your supervision, and your degree plan. Understanding those pieces before enrolling will help you choose the part of the sequence that actually serves your needs.
Key Takeaways
- Job planning and holistic life planning work together to guide your next employment or internship step.
- Students with an appropriate job and supervision may skip the one-credit job search course.
- Practicum enrollment requires preparation, elective space, and a signed supervision agreement.
- Supervised work combines approximately 10 weekly hours with journaling, documented work logs, and relevant reading.
Table of Contents
- Who This Course Sequence Is For
- Start With Both a Job Plan and a Life Plan
- Use ORG 201 When You Need to Find a Placement
- Check Supervision Carefully for Addiction Counseling
- Choose the Internship or Practicum Course That Fits Your Program
- Confirm That You Are Ready Before Enrolling
- What the Weekly Course Work Looks Like
- Plan Your Next Step With Your Instructor
Who This Course Sequence Is For
There are three main groups of students who should consider this sequence. You may fit more than one group, but each has a slightly different reason for participating.
Students looking for a job or internship
If you are not currently employed and are looking for a job or internship, the sequence provides a progression from planning to searching and then to supervised work. Rather than beginning with an internship course before you have a placement, you first work toward finding an appropriate opportunity.
That order matters. The internship or practicum course is built around work you are actually doing with a supervisor, not just your intention to find work later.
Students pursuing addiction counseling licensure
If you plan to pursue addiction counseling licensure in your state and need practicum hours, this sequence is relevant to your preparation. In this situation, the supervision available at your placement is especially important.
You need to consider more than whether an organization does counseling-related work. You also need to determine whether the person supervising you has the appropriate professional qualifications for the experience you are pursuing.
Students already working in an appropriate organization
You do not necessarily need a new internship placement to participate. If you already work in an appropriate nonprofit organization or counseling center, your current job may provide the setting for the course.
For you, the primary benefit may be mentoring rather than finding employment. The course brings academic assignments, reflection, and documented supervision alongside your existing work. Having a job can provide a starting point, but the organization and supervision still need to be appropriate.
Start With Both a Job Plan and a Life Plan
The sequence begins with planning. For undergraduate students, the relevant introductory course is either Introduction to Christian Addiction Counseling or Introduction to Nonprofit and Ministry Management. These introductory courses are required for undergraduates, but that general requirement does not apply to graduate students.
In the introductory course, you develop a job plan. This is a practical plan focused on your work direction. It complements the broader life plan developed in Vocation, Calling and Purpose of Work.
These two plans serve different purposes:
- The job plan focuses more directly on employment and the practical direction of your work.
- The life plan takes a more holistic view of your calling, including work within the larger picture of your life.
We intend these plans to complement one another. A job plan helps you move toward a concrete work opportunity. A life plan helps you consider how that opportunity fits your broader calling and purpose.
Neither perspective should crowd out the other. You need practical direction, but you also need to think beyond the next position. Together, the two planning activities provide a foundation for deciding what kind of experience to pursue and why it matters.
Use ORG 201 When You Need to Find a Placement
After the planning courses, students who do not currently have a job move to ORG 201: Job and Internship Search Strategy. This is a one-credit course that serves as the search stage of the sequence.
The distinction between searching and participating in an internship is important. If you still need a work setting, your immediate task is to find one. Once you have an appropriate role and supervision, you can move into the internship or practicum course.
ORG 201 can be skipped by students who already have a job with appropriate supervision. There is no need to take a search course simply to repeat a step you have already completed.
However, the key phrase is appropriate supervision. Being employed does not automatically mean you are ready to move directly into a practicum. Your job must provide the setting and supervisory relationship needed for your course and professional goals.
A useful way to identify your next step is to ask:
- Do I already have a job or internship setting?
- Is that setting appropriate for the internship or practicum course?
- Is there someone who can provide the required supervision?
If you do not yet have a placement, focus on the search stage. If you have both an appropriate position and appropriate supervision, you may be ready to move directly into supervised academic work, subject to the course’s other requirements.
Check Supervision Carefully for Addiction Counseling
For addiction counseling students, supervision is not simply a matter of having someone at work who can sign a form. If you want addiction counseling practicum supervision, you will need a licensed addiction counselor or another appropriately licensed counselor providing that supervision.
This is why we emphasize supervision when discussing whether an employed student can skip the job search course. A job may be relevant to your field while still lacking the supervisory arrangement you need.
Keep your academic goal and your licensure goal connected, but do not assume they are identical. The internship or practicum course provides an academic structure for supervised experience. Your state’s requirements remain important when your purpose is addiction counseling licensure.
For additional help locating licensing information, the U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored CareerOneStop License Finder provides a starting point for researching occupational licenses by state. Use your state’s licensing authority to confirm the requirements that apply to you.
Before relying on a placement for licensure-related experience, clarify the supervision question with your instructor and the relevant licensing authority. That is a better approach than completing work first and only later asking whether the arrangement fits your goal.
Choose the Internship or Practicum Course That Fits Your Program
City Vision has different internship or practicum course versions depending on your department and academic level. Undergraduate versions serve addiction counseling and the nonprofit management, business, and ministry areas. There is also a graduate version.
The name or course designation may differ, but the central approach is the same: supervised work is paired with academic assignments and mentoring.
The intended outcome also depends on where you begin:
- If you are seeking work, employment may be the larger goal of the sequence.
- If you are an addiction counseling student, licensure may be the professional goal you are working toward.
- If you are already employed, mentoring and development in your current role may be the primary purpose.
That last point is worth emphasizing. An internship or practicum is not only for someone entering a workplace for the first time. It can also give an employed student a structured opportunity to learn from a mentor and reflect more deeply on work already underway.
Confirm That You Are Ready Before Enrolling
The internship or practicum course should fit into your degree intentionally. Before taking it, check the introductory preparation, the space available in your degree plan, and the supervision agreement.
Complete the relevant introductory preparation
The stated preparation for the internship or practicum includes completing Introduction to Christian Addiction Counseling or Introduction to Nonprofit and Ministry Management.
Because the general introductory-course requirement differs between undergraduate and graduate students, graduate students should clarify the preparation expected for their version of the internship or practicum with their instructor. Do not assume that every part of the undergraduate sequence applies in exactly the same way.
Make sure you have room for electives
You should have room in your degree plan for elective courses. Do not use the internship or practicum to replace other courses you need to take.
Our other courses may provide more value for your learning needs. Supervised work has an important place, but it should complement your education rather than displace coursework that belongs in your program.
The question is not just whether you can earn credit through work. It is whether this is the best use of the elective space available to you.
Have a supervisor sign the supervision agreement
You need someone in an appropriate nonprofit organization, church, or ministry who has signed City Vision’s supervision agreement. Your current employer may serve as the placement if you work for an appropriate organization.
You may also participate through a volunteer internship. Paid employment is therefore not the only possible setting, but either arrangement needs the appropriate supervision and agreement.
Having a potential organization in mind is not the same as having the supervisory arrangement in place. Resolve that piece before treating the course as your next enrollment step.
What the Weekly Course Work Looks Like
The course combines supervised work with academic reflection and relevant reading. Plan on approximately 10 hours of work per week counting toward course time, along with time for the other course activities.
Those work hours are an important part of the course, but they are not the entire course. You will also complete assignments that help connect the experience with your learning.
Weekly journaling and reflection
You will journal weekly and reflect on your work. This gives you a regular opportunity to consider what you are learning rather than simply moving from one task to the next.
The academic value comes from connecting the experience with thoughtful reflection. Work provides the material; journaling helps you examine it.
A supervisor-signed work log
You will maintain a work log that your supervisor signs. The log documents the work component of the course and connects it to the supervisory relationship.
Because documentation is part of the course structure, include it in your weekly planning alongside the work itself. It should not be treated as something separate from the supervised experience.
Reading relevant to your internship
You will also read material relevant to your internship. The reading adds an academic component tied to the setting in which you are working.
Together, the work, mentoring, journaling, documentation, and reading form the learning experience. This is not simply credit for being employed. It is a course that uses supervised work as part of your education.
Plan Your Next Step With Your Instructor
The internship or practicum course is available every term and can be taken a second time, for a total of up to two enrollments. That gives you flexibility in when you participate, but the course still needs to fit your degree plan and supervision arrangements.
Before enrolling, bring these questions to your instructor:
- Which version of the course fits my department and degree level?
- Have I completed the preparation expected for that course?
- Do I need ORG 201, or does my current position provide appropriate supervision?
- Do I have elective space available?
- Has my supervisor signed the supervision agreement?
- Can I plan for approximately 10 work hours each week plus the academic assignments?
If you have questions about the sequence or your situation, ask your instructor or email support@cityvision.edu.
The purpose of this sequence is straightforward: connect your calling and practical job plans with an appropriate work opportunity, then make that experience a place for supervised learning. Whether your next goal is employment, addiction counseling licensure, or growth in your current role, choose the step that matches where you are now.