Introduction and Description of My Summer Internship

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be setting up a blog, I would have given you a blank look. However, this year, I have been inspired by the AMAZING blogs set up by my predecessors in the Benjamin Duke Scholarship group. The goal of this blog is to help me write my reflections on my first internship, first time living completely away from home and a meal plan, and first time living with 13 other people. Hopefully, I will provide a personal insight into the first internship and help myself to learn through reflection.

Description of my internship at the Chesterfield County Coordinating Council as I understand it:

1. Grocery Gap Project: As the article "Living in Junk Food County" has shown us, healthy food is hard to come by, especially in rural areas. Could citizens on Food Stamps afford a nutritious diet? I will assist the health subcommittee to determine the typical family, recommend a diet, and compile a grocery list. By pricing the grocery, we will aim to answer the question. I anticipate that I will be conducting hands-on research in the local grocery stores, writing reports to the subcommittee, and creating public awareness tools based on the data.

2. JumpStart Project: Since healthy lifestyle decisions are created when one is young, the health subcommittee is going to set up a JumpStart Family Health Day to provide free screening, fun exercise activities, healthy snacks, and informational booths on how to make healthy lifestyle choices. I expect that I will be contacting the different organizations and helping to plan the JumpStart Art Contest.

3. Perform Webmaster functions such as restructuring the newsletter system to go “paperless,” by creating listservs and so forth.

4. Creating and updating public awareness materials.