WATERLOO - In the midst of local disaster was the internship of a lifetime.

University of Northern Iowa senior Christina Hussey, majoring in social work, always knew she enjoyed working with teens and youth. In what capacity, though, was the question.

Then last spring delivered a one-two punch, causing chaos throughout the region. A tornado and massive flooding left many children in the dark as to what exactly happened and how to deal with lingering emotions.

Now Hussey is getting her turn to counsel the young victims of unexpected catastrophes. In January she began her field coursework with Project Recovery Iowa, a crisis counseling program sponsored through a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the auspices of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

She's facilitating story hours to help kids cope, leading support groups and attending meetings with community leaders. She will put in nearly 30 hours per week before graduation in early May.

"I've never worked with this population before, the kids who have been through such severe storms and who've really been impacted," said Hussey of Jesup.

A nontraditional student, Hussey, 28, earned a bachelor's degree in 2002 from Iowa State University.

She went on to work for the Department of Human Services for 4 1/2 years in Arizona but was itching to try something different.

"I want to work with kids who have been traumatized in some way," she said.

Such professional training, typically unpaid, is nothing new for social work students across the country, said Carol Cook, director of field instruction for social work at UNI.

The real-life experience allows students to apply what they've learned in the classroom to such settings as medical, education, nursing home, hospice, mental health, child and adolescent services and domestic violence.

"Wherever an organization exists to help people with human-related needs, you usually find social workers there," Cook said.

As part of a block capstone course built into UNI's social work curriculum, each undergraduate must log a minimum of 440 hours at an agency. Students in the two-year graduate program put in 900 hours, while an advanced standing within the graduate program - available to students who have undergraduate degrees in social work - requires a minimum of 500 hours. UNI averages about 200 undergraduates, and 40 graduate students.

Participating agencies are local and throughout Iowa, while some positions for students are available outside the state. Students are under the supervision of a community professional, as well as a UNI faculty member.

"This goes well beyond the notion of job shadowing," Cook said.

Mandy Gesme, children's services coordinator for Project Recovery Iowa in Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan and Butler counties, said Hussey's workload is comparable to her own. And her valuable contributions come during a critical time, as Project Recovery's grant expires in September.

"I wouldn't be able to cover as many kids without her," Gesme said. "We're trying to provide the service to as many people as possible."

"We were very lucky to get her because (with her background) she had a little more experience than most," added Peter Cote, an adjunct professor at UNI and clinical supervisor with Project Recovery Iowa.

Hussey, who is married and has a 4-year-old son and a daughter on the way, has been accepted into UNI's graduate program, which starts in June.

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1484 or tina.hinz@wcfcourier.com.