My junior year at the University of Houston is off to a memorable begging already. This summer I was finally able to find two organizations that could help me gain some experience doing nutrition related work. In thinking about what I want to do after I graduate, I knew that I had to use this summer to build up my resume with experiences that show my interest for nutrition.
The organizations that I interned with this summer taught me a lot about my working style. I was an intern for both organizations this summer, so I had to make sure I was dedicating enough time to both. One of the organizations, Houston Academy, has three components to it. The first was to work with the professors graduate student, through out the summer, to input data for the research they were conducting. The second component of the Houston Academy internship was to work with the Houston Food Bank in their nutrition education classes that are offered to the community. The final component of this internship is to enroll for a class this fall semester.
At the beginning of the summer when I decided to take on this internship, I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of work and responsibility I had to commit myself to. In thinking back on how overwhelmed I was at the beginning of this summer, I think most of it was just being nervous because I had never experienced being an intern for any organization before. The rewarding part of this internship for me was not only the experience I got from it, but there was also a stipend that the internship paid its interns. If you are a student that wants to intern with any organization that can help you further develop your skills, this is always a good thing to look for when considering various organizations that accept interns.
The second internship I did this summer was with an organization on campus called Bounce. Over the summer this organization runs a summer camp that is for students in elementary that are overweight. The summer program for them helps with making behavioral changes in the way that they treat their bodies. For example, the students are taught different ways to engage in physical activity. They are taught how to make healthier food choices at home, and their parents learn along side their children. Aside from this program that Bounce runs over the summer they do other work in the field of nutrition. I was hoping that my work here would help me obtain a paid position as a coordinator for the program, but it did not play out this way for me.
My goal for this summer was to further get involved in any nutrition related organization. Now that I have these experiences, I feel more confident about making this goal more specific as I move into this fall semester. My advice as a first generation student, for any perspective college students, is to think of the next short term step that you need to take right now so that your long term goal is closer in reach.