Hello, readers, and thanks for checking out my blog post! My name is Jackie, I am from Region 4, and I have completed the bulk of my internship in the Reading, PA area. I am halfway through my clinical rotations at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center, having already completed long-term care, patient services, and food service management.
One of my favorite experiences has been in my food service management rotation, which I completed at the headquarters for Caron Treatment Centers, an addiction and behavioral health treatment center in Wernersville, PA. Here I completed my Retail Marketing Project: I created a variety of modified desserts for the holiday season. I made chickpea blondies, chocolate chip tahini cookies, black bean brownies, and protein balls, all of which incorporated whole food ingredients and were well received by both patients and staff.
To be clear, putting tahini in a cookie was not an effort to modify a dessert to make it acceptable for a “healthy diet.” On the contrary, what I hoped to accomplish with this project was to encourage open-mindedness and creativity in the kitchen, share ideas for incorporating nuts, beans, and seeds into recipes, and to role model my belief that there is no such thing as a “bad” food. Honestly, some of these treats were loaded with sugar, and I wanted to send the message that, as an RD2B, I think that is okay! I believe that cookies and carrot sticks belong on the same plate, and I want to help more people embrace this understanding of “everything in moderation.”
Part of what made the above project so memorable was that Caron’s kitchen team was just awesome to work with! I was so impressed by the talent, collaboration, professionalism, and overall camaraderie that was so clearly woven into their fabric, and I was appreciative of them welcoming me with open arms, letting me take over their work surfaces, and taste-testing my unusual concoctions. I will be forever grateful for my time at Caron!
Another great thing about this internship in general is having the opportunity to learn from so many dietitians. Each RD I have worked with has taught me something new and unique, and this has been helpful in forming my own style. There is a lot of gray area in our profession, which means that my clinical judgment could be quite different from someone else’s. I appreciate that Sodexo allows us the chance to work in such diverse areas, with many different RDs.
I feel very lucky to be completing my dietetic internship under the guidance of directors who are encouraging, resourceful, goal-oriented leaders. We are ALL learning how to manage our lives during the COVID-19 crisis, and Sodexo’s internship directors have put forth huge efforts to help us continue our rotations with a virtual curriculum that they put together seamlessly. Thank you, directors, for your leadership, and for role modeling perseverance.
One of my favorite experiences has been in my food service management rotation, which I completed at the headquarters for Caron Treatment Centers, an addiction and behavioral health treatment center in Wernersville, PA. Here I completed my Retail Marketing Project: I created a variety of modified desserts for the holiday season. I made chickpea blondies, chocolate chip tahini cookies, black bean brownies, and protein balls, all of which incorporated whole food ingredients and were well received by both patients and staff.
To be clear, putting tahini in a cookie was not an effort to modify a dessert to make it acceptable for a “healthy diet.” On the contrary, what I hoped to accomplish with this project was to encourage open-mindedness and creativity in the kitchen, share ideas for incorporating nuts, beans, and seeds into recipes, and to role model my belief that there is no such thing as a “bad” food. Honestly, some of these treats were loaded with sugar, and I wanted to send the message that, as an RD2B, I think that is okay! I believe that cookies and carrot sticks belong on the same plate, and I want to help more people embrace this understanding of “everything in moderation.”
Part of what made the above project so memorable was that Caron’s kitchen team was just awesome to work with! I was so impressed by the talent, collaboration, professionalism, and overall camaraderie that was so clearly woven into their fabric, and I was appreciative of them welcoming me with open arms, letting me take over their work surfaces, and taste-testing my unusual concoctions. I will be forever grateful for my time at Caron!
Another great thing about this internship in general is having the opportunity to learn from so many dietitians. Each RD I have worked with has taught me something new and unique, and this has been helpful in forming my own style. There is a lot of gray area in our profession, which means that my clinical judgment could be quite different from someone else’s. I appreciate that Sodexo allows us the chance to work in such diverse areas, with many different RDs.
I feel very lucky to be completing my dietetic internship under the guidance of directors who are encouraging, resourceful, goal-oriented leaders. We are ALL learning how to manage our lives during the COVID-19 crisis, and Sodexo’s internship directors have put forth huge efforts to help us continue our rotations with a virtual curriculum that they put together seamlessly. Thank you, directors, for your leadership, and for role modeling perseverance.
