Hi everyone! My name is Alyssa Houghton and I am an intern in region 1 and completing my master’s degree through the University of Rhode Island. I began my internship in September of 2019 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Utica, New York. At first, clinical was the rotation I was least looking forward to because of how intimidating it seemed. However, I quickly came to realize that was not the case. I truly enjoyed every minute of my 5 months spent learning basic, intermediate and advanced dietetics hands on.
 
After I finished my clinical rotation, I went right into my long-term care rotation. Although this rotation was short and sweet, I enjoyed the slower pace of long-term care. It was nice that I could sit and build relationships with residents even in that short amount of time.
 
Next came my foodservice rotation, which I was fortunate enough to complete before COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the globe. I completed this rotation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. This was by far my favorite rotation, and I am not sure if it’s because I was unable to complete my community and concentration rotations in a more traditional way.
I enjoyed working with the students and putting on different events while being able to show my creative side. I quickly came to learn that a campus dietitian wears many different hats, which I think is great. It allows a lot of diversity within the field and definitely keeps them on their toes.
 
Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, I am not able to complete my community rotation traditionally. I, like many of my fellow interns, am working diligently on webinars and different assignments to complete my community rotation. I am beyond grateful for the outpouring of support from not only my preceptors, but also all of the directors of the many regions of this internship. Without their continued guidance, this would not be going as smoothly as it is.
 
On another note, I originally was going to complete my concentration rotation with a Diabetes Outpatient Clinic that was based through Albany Medical Center. This was not able to happen because of the pandemic. However, with the help of my director, I was able to choose a new concentration that I would be able to complete on site. I began my concentration rotation of Senior Living about two weeks ago and could not happier. It was not my first choice, but I have grown to love it.
 
With that being said, my advice to future interns is to remain open-minded, you have no idea where this journey is going to take you. So, buckle up, and trust that everything is going to be just fine.

Hey everyone! My name is Alyssa Newberry. I’m a region 10 intern, located just north of Houston, Texas. I initially chose to apply for the Sodexo Dietetic Internship because of its flexibility and the option to stay close to home. I had no idea that I would actually be completing a good deal of my internship from home! With the unprecedented situation created by COVID-19, I’ve had the opportunity to see just how flexible Sodexo and I can be. Fortunately, prior to working from home, I had time to complete my food service management and wellness concentration rotations.

I completed my food service management rotation at CHI St. Luke’s Hospital in The Woodlands. The Sodexo team at CHI provided such a strong foundation for the rest of my internship. I was quickly welcomed into the management team and given all of the support I needed to learn as much as I could. Because of my accounting background, I had so much fun working with the retail and marketing manager to determine the café’s average food cost, investigate the efficiency of the register system, and help implement some changes to improve reporting. The CHI team was and continues to be incredibly enthusiastic about working with me, as I have returned a few times to work with the CNM when she has bariatric outpatient appointments.
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For my wellness concentration, I was able to work with a Sodexo Corporate account at The Friedkin Group, where they had never hosted a dietetic intern before. I helped the café meet all of the qualifications to become Silver Certified with the Mindful program and worked with the chef and general manager to provide a healthy cooking demonstration for the employees, which the client thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks to the relationships I built with the client during my wellness rotation, I was able to spend some extra time with the company providing one on one nutritional counseling to their employees. This counseling was promoted to employees as a limited time free benefit. And because I had the opportunity to see a handful of employees for initial and follow-up visits, I had the chance to see their progress and assess my own effectiveness.

At the end of January, I began my clinical rotation with HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe. I could not believe my good luck in being placed with another amazing group. They have already taught me so much and helped to build my confidence in my ability to complete nutrition assessments and give education in an inpatient setting. I can’t wait to get back to the hospital to finish out my time with them!

To all new and future interns, remember that even when there aren’t extenuating circumstances like COVID-19, it’s important to stay flexible and use your strengths to get the most out of each rotation during the internship! 

​Hi everyone! My name is Morgan, and I am a region 5 intern. I started the internship in fall 2019, and am finishing up amidst the Covid-19 crisis. I was able to complete my FSM, patient services, and clinical rotations in person. The support and encouragement us interns have been receiving from our directors during this crisis is really something to brag about! They work so hard for us to have the best experience possible. I want to start this post by shouting THANK YOU to all of them!
 
Now, I want to talk about the Professional Research Project (PRP). This is the biggest project Sodexo interns will complete during their internship. It involves writing an 8-10 page research paper, putting together a PowerPoint presentation, and presenting a 45(ish) minute presentation in front of other interns and registered dietitians. As an intern, knowing this project is on the horizon is quite intimidating. It can be overwhelming thinking about how to start and finish it. Here are 5 tips for upcoming interns on how to tackle this project:
 

1. Choose a topic that is interesting to you. If your greatest interests do not reside in clinical, that is OK! Choose an interest and I guarantee there is some connection between it and something clinical - you might have to get creative. Talk to your director; they are happy to help you solidify your topic.
2. Collect all of your research first. Read through each of your articles one by one and highlight important pieces of information within them. Trash pieces that are not offering you what you need. Quality over quantity.
3. Organize your articles by the information they offer you, and then begin writing your paper in chunks based off of each “category” you have. Chip away at this and before you know it, your paper will come together!
4. Ask professionals that are familiar with your topic to review your paper. My husband reviewed my paper and gave me great feedback in terms of grammar, but I also had two RDs who work in the field of my topic review my paper. The feedback they provided me really helped take my paper to the next level.
5. Practice, practice, practice your presentation! Practice on your own. Practice in front of roommates, friends, family. Practice! And know that it is more than OK to have notes/note cards with you during your presentation to help you to remember specific things you want to say.

 
Once you get over the hump of starting, this project can be a lot of fun! You are learning about something that is interesting to you and sharing that information with others. You got this!

​Hi everyone! My name is Anne Mammone and I’m an intern with region 4. I started my internship in February after having just moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. I started at a long-term care facility where I completed my basic clinical and long-term care rotations. I really enjoyed starting my clinical rotation at this location, as it is a slower pace than an acute care hospital, which gave me the opportunity to really improve upon my patient assessment skills. By the end of my basic clinical rotation, I felt more than ready to pick up the pace at an acute care hospital. I no sooner started my intermediate clinical rotation at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia, when the COVD-19 pandemic began. I completed about 3 weeks of that rotation before deciding to stay at home to quarantine until further notice. During this time, my directors have gone above and beyond to make themselves available to me and the other interns to help us get through this time.
 
From the few weeks that I was able to be on site for my intermediate clinical rotation, I was already experiencing growth in my clinical skills, as well as improvement in my time-management skills. By the end of those first few weeks, I was able to see up to 4 patients of various disease states each day for new assessments or follow ups, in addition to performing any education consults we received that day. I was learning so much from the dietitians each and every day.  With that being said, my internship looks a lot different now than it did during the first 2 months. I am taking this time to work from home on assignments, simulations, and attending webinars to continue progressing through my internship. I am thankful to have had some on-site experience prior to this pandemic, as I can use this time to continue to grow in my knowledge through the online resources that Sodexo has provided to us.  My directors and fellow interns have been my support system thorough all of this.  Our directors made sure that we had more than enough resources to help us to continue our internship virtually, without falling too far behind our intended graduation date. We have implemented additional Skype meetings so that we can ask our directors any questions, share any concerns we have, and just talk to other people that are going through the exact same experience.
 
Although this is not how I expected the beginning of my internship to go, Sodexo has provided us with a magnitude of resources and support so that we can progress with our internship virtually.  My advice to future interns would be to roll with whatever comes your way! Take the opportunities you have on-site and try to learn as much as you can from the individuals you have the chance to work with.  This is YOUR chance to take in as much experience as possible. Be thankful for the amazing opportunities this internship is providing to you! 

​Hi! My name is Brandi Sze, and I am a region 3 (NYC) Sodexo Intern and on the MS Track with URI. Quick backstory: before I was accepted to Sodexo’s dietetic internship, I completed my undergraduate from Rutgers University in May of 2018 and worked as a diet clerk in NYU Winthrop hospital for more than a year. I highly recommend gaining some clinical experience because it prepares you for the hospital setting-- intense and fast-paced.

I was in the middle of my advanced clinical rotation at Flushing Hospital Medical Center when COVID hit and definitely miss it! All my preceptors are extremely knowledgeable in their specialty and are constantly teaching me new materials. I saw various procedures and surgeries because of them. I also did my food service rotation at the same site, which allowed me to form a relationship with the food service employees, understand how their operation works, and form relationships with the dietitians and CNM. When it was time for me to come back to the same site for clinical, it was a smooth transition. Currently, I am finishing up my community rotation online with All Access Dietetics learning about social media and blogging. Other sites that I have been in for my community rotation are food banks, soup kitchens, schools, and community centers. Getting exposure to various community settings is a great way to learn how to tailor each nutrition education as each group of individuals have their own set of problems and needs! ​

My favorite rotation I did thus far was my wellness rotation, in which I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Orlando, Florida to be with Sodexo Magic - Disney World! I had originally chosen MNT as my concentration but when the opportunity presented itself, I knew I had to take it. My biggest advice is to be open-minded. I thought I wanted to be a clinical RD long-term but after my experience working with the wellness dietitian, I’m not sure anymore. At Disney, I loved how I was able to show my creative side, go on site visits, do a smoothie bike event, and expand my network. I didn’t understand the benefits of corporate wellness until now. What makes Sodexo’s internship great are the countless opportunities you will receive and how the directors are always seeking for more. Because of Sodexo, I was able to intern with one of the most well-known corporations, gain a ton of clinical experience, work to obtain my Master’s degree, and tailor my internship to suit my interests. ​

​Hi everyone! My name is Jessica Weistuch and I am a region one dietetic intern based in Connecticut. I am supposed to be in my food service/concentration rotations with East Hartford Public Schools. With the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had to make a few adjustments by doing my hours from home. Before the pandemic, I was able to work with the school registered dietitian in East Hartford in doing production records, a waste study (consisting of three days, three separate weeks), and food samplings within different schools in the district. Based on my experiences, even though it was only for a few weeks, I highly recommend getting some hours working in public schools to all the new interns out there-- especially since it is becoming more and more popular!
 
Prior to this rotation, I did my clinical rotation at a long term care facility called Elim Park in Cheshire, CT. Although this setting is not common for interns for clinical, this experience taught me just as much as a hospital would have. I did nutrition assessments (including calculating needs), interviewed residents, did MDS assessments, discharge summaries, quarterly notes, and annuals. I also had the opportunity to witness two FEES tests on residents within the facility. I was able to make relationships with the APRN, speech therapists, physical therapists, nursing staff, cooks, dietary aides and the general manager in addition to the three registered dietitians who were my preceptors. In Elim Park, only one dietitian was on staff each day, which left me with plenty of responsibility and room to improve upon my skills. The workload each day was tough, but we always got through each day together and worked as a team. My favorite part of this experience was the independence I was given. As the months trickled down, I was able to do up to nine nutrition assessments daily among other tasks. This experience led me to be more confident in myself and my knowledge in the dietetics field. 
 
In between all these hours, I did my community rotation hours, primarily with SNAP-Ed and ShopRite. For SNAP-Ed, I went to sites all around Connecticut, and I was able to participate in nutrition educations to a variety of populations and settings (including parent-teacher conferences at school!). Although I enjoyed completing my hours with SNAP-Ed, I think I enjoyed the hours I spent with ShopRite a bit more. I was lucky enough to intern for two registered dietitians: one in Manchester, CT., and the other in East Hartford, CT. My favorite activity I did with these two registered dietitians was going to an elementary school and teaching eight different classes about MyPlate and how to make a fruit English muffin pizza. Each class rotated between my room and other rooms that included these two dietitians and another intern. I absolutely loved teaching these kids and seeing their expressions!
 
All the preceptors I have had throughout this internship have been wonderful. They all pushed me to be where I am today and taught me so much. I have maintained the relationships I made in my clinical rotation at Elim Park and they continue to want to help me grow and see my progress. Now, I am approaching the end of the tunnel: graduation. Without the assistance of my preceptors and everything they have taught me, I do not think I would be where I am today.
 
For all of the future interns who are nervous for their coming experience — just know, I was in your shoes (and so were all of your future preceptors). We are all in this together and have the same goals — to become a registered dietitian. I advise all of you to make as many connections as you can throughout your rotations and to never give up! Everyone has days that they feel they cannot do it anymore — including me. Now, I am advising all of you to keep calm, push through, and be the best intern you can be so you can achieve your goal of being an RD!

​Hello everyone out there! My name is Kaleia Valin and I am a region 12 Fall 2019 Sodexo intern. I wanted to briefly discuss my experiences with this flexible distance internship during a very unique and unpredictable time such as the development of COIVD19. I was halfway through my food service rotation when the stay at home order was placed here in Hawaii. I worked with my preceptor and the other supervisors to try to finish my projects and competencies on my RAEF at the best of my ability. Additionally, I was told I could do a distance online Nutrient Analysis for the hospital to help account for some of the hours.
 
Sodexo has been very supportive and innovative during such a difficult time. Sodexo created unique website page for COVID19 offering resources to clinical, community, food service, and even long-term care that could count toward a large bulk of hours! Through the Sodexo website, we are able to complete a variety of different learning simulations, webinars, projects and activities, and even clinically-based case studies. It’s not possible to completely replace these rotations as they are integral to the internship, but I was so impressed and relived that Sodexo cared enough about their intern’s progress and safety to implement such a unique alternative during a difficult time. I am also very grateful, despite the circumstances, to have had this experience as I’ve learned of many new resources that are available to me, especially as a professional in the future. There are so many free webinars on hundreds of different topics spanning from community to clinical—it is possible to learn just about anything online and Sodexo is definitely a part of this movement.

I hope that the internship can resume as normal very soon for upcoming interns, but considering this crisis, I feel confidently that Sodexo is able to offer a unique and valuable experience to its interns which is exactly why I worked so hard to try to be accepted into this program. I am also completing the combined MS program through the University of Rhode Island and working to support myself at the same time—it’s not easy, but I will say that it is absolutely worth the effort.  If you are willing to work hard for something that matters to you, I believe it’s possible to make a difference. Here in Hawaii, Sodexo is one of the only internship choices available and many new graduates are forced to move away to make their dreams of becoming a dietitian a possibility. Not only was I lucky enough to be accepted to Sodexo’s distance internship program, but I’m so grateful to have had the experience to complete my clinical hours and critical care MNT concentration at the largest hospital in Hawaii. I’ve learned so much through my experiences there and I know it will make me a better healthcare professional in the future. 

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.
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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.

My name is Eryn David, and I'm currently a Region 5 dietetic intern. At this point in my internship, I have completed my food service rotation at The Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and started my patient services/clinical nutrition management rotations at Jefferson Medical Center in Ranson, West Virginia.

My foodservice rotation was completed at The Madeira School, a girl’s boarding and day school.  While there, I was able to have some fantastic food service-related experiences that included not only the daily meal service for the student body and faculty, but community-building events supported by the catering services. The food service staff helped facilitate many themed lunch events and "pop-ups" to increase client satisfaction and lunch attendance. My personal favorite was National Strawberry Day, where we surprised the girls and faculty with mini strawberry shortcake cups. Still, the mac n' cheese bar for National Mac N' Cheese Day was popular as well with add-ons such as buffalo chicken and shrimp. For my marketing and wellness project, I presented information about Intuitive Eating as part of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which is something I feel strongly about. My preceptor encouraged me to take the lead on many of the management tasks, as applicable teaching an in-service meeting about proper handwashing as COVID-19 started getting more attention.

Hi everyone!
 
My name is Salem Zeglin and I am a distance intern in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I started my internship off with the food service management rotation at Grand Strand Medical Center. I am fortunate enough to be able to also complete my clinical rotation, diabetes concentration, and some adult community hours in Cardiac Rehab at this same site.
 
So far, my favorite project for the internship was planning the retail marketing and wellness event I held for the hospital staff and visitors. In the initial survey I conducted in order to gauge what the staff and visitors were looking for, I found that many wanted more healthful options. Buddha bowls, or as some may call them, nourish bowls, are great for individual creativity and can be seen all over Pinterest and Instagram. These bowls are picture-worthy. This is where I got the idea for my event called “Build a Bowl- Build a Balanced Meal Bowl that is Nutritious and Delicious.” This specialty bar was broken into five components; grain base, animal and plant-based protein, greens, vegetables, and toppings that were all chosen by the staff and visitors.