Communication with Parents

Parent role in the Internship Year

We understand that you have dedicated a great deal of love, support, time and energy for your child, and that the post-secondary decision process, gap year or college, represents a significant landmark for you both. At this point in your child's life, the parent-child relationship undergoes an important shift, one towards equal and mutual adult standing. While this destination is desirable to all, getting there can be fraught with equal parts anxiety and excitement, loneliness and elation, dependence and independence, for both the child and parent!

Since Dynamy works year after year with families at this stage and is dedicated to a true experiential educational model, we have developed clear guidelines about the student’s (primary) role and the parent’s (secondary) role and how we support each. In short, it can be summed up that parents must have little (not no) direct involvement in the program in order to best ensure that their son or daughter discovers the personal outcomes of self-confidence, resilience and direction.

The sections below detail how we keep you informed and engaged as the Internship Year unfolds.

Publications and Reflections

In addition to Parent Days early in each Internship Year semester (see below), Dynamy maintains communication with parents through the following print sources:

Registration Materials:

Upon acceptance to Internship Year, interns and parents receive registration documents and policy handbooks in which they will find detailed answers to issues concerning Residential Life, Internships, and the expectations of the intentional community they are joining. Interns are required to sign an acknowledgment of receipt, and we strongly encourage parents to review each handbook and to discuss them with Interns.

Formal newsletters:

Published twice annually, the full color newsletter brings updates on each Dynamy program to your home. The newsletter often features individual Interns and group activities, as well as updates on alumni. Formal newsletters are mailed through the United States Postal System and also may be viewed online.

Program E-newsletters:

The more informal Program E-newsletter features individuals, activities and announcements. This newsletter typically arrives through parents’ shared email accounts.

Portfolio Reflections:

Each intern keeps a Portfolio during his/her Internship Year. The Portfolio helps interns to record their thoughts during the early, middle, and end stages of the program while also gathering the perspectives of those adults around them, especially their Adventure Challenge instructors, Internship sponsors, and Dynamy Advisor. The Fall Check-in (November), and Mid-year (February) and Final Reflections (May) are records of both the intern's and Advisor’s perspectives on the major components of the Internship Year program. Advisors also identify one area of focus they believe would be beneficial for each Intern as s/he moves forward. These Reflections are intended to inspire Interns to reflect on and discuss the Internship Year experience and also to create personal goals. They are mailed to parents after initial review together by Interns and Advisors. Parents are encouraged to discuss these Reflections with their son or daughter.

Intern Publications:

Occasionally, Interns create yearbooks, creative anthologies and/or other self-published mementos of their Internship Year. While staff acts in an advisory capacity in these endeavors, Dynamy does not exercise creative control over student publications and does not participate in their distribution, except as requested by Interns.