Dietetic Internship Students in Action 2021

2021 Marywood University Dietetic Interns & Project Updates 

Case Studies

Intern Alicia presented a clinical case study on Diabetic Ketoacidosis in the first week of the staff relief portion of her acute care rotation.

Getting Published

Intern Lauren became a published writer in the October 2021 issue of Her Magazine with her article titled "Power up with Prevention." She shares practical tips for the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. See the full issue and article here.

Julia Child fun Themed Meal

Intern Francesca carried out a Julia Child themed meal for residents at Elmwood Hills Healthcare Center/Northbrook Behavioral Hospital Services, including purchasing, receiving, storing, and inventory. Here you can see the card (pictured bottom) that she included on each tray so that the residents would know what the occasion was. The back of the card included a website link to Julia Child's first time cooking beef bourguignon - which was on the residents' menu that evening!

Zooming into Health

Celene interned at Three Sisters Kitchen, a non-profit community food space in the heart of downtown Albuquerque that aims to create a space where good food, diverse communities, and economic opportunity come together for a healthier and more vibrant city. During her time there she presented a curriculum, created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Diabetes Prevention Program, after noticing a high prevalence of diabetes risk factors in her community.

Representing the Nutrition Department

Marywood Intern Jessie represents the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center nutrition department at a caregiver fair. The VAMC provides family members or friends of veterans with a stipend in exchange for those persons to serve as the veteran's caregiver and take them to appointments and procedures. These fairs occur to familiarize caregivers with the many services  and specialties that the VAMC offers

Creative Cooking Demos

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Intern Monica was not able to present her health promotion project in person to the community, but instead, created a QR code that linked to a website she created with cooking demonstrations and recipes to unfamiliar foods. Monica's goals were to use ingredients that the food pantry participants were receiving in the cooking demonstration and to promote the use of fruit and vegetable consumption. The foods that the pantry provided were fresh produce and canned goods, such as whole grain pastas, rice, quinoa, canned vegetables, fruit, and proteins.  She thought outside the box to present her project safely by dropping the handouts in the participant's pantry bags. Participants could then follow the link to her online cooking demonstrations!

Nutrition Untangled

The graduate students in the Nutrition Education class have created a podcast titled "Nutrition Untangled", where they will be talking about all things nutrition in hopes of “untangling” information on nutrition! Take a listen to the episodes for more information on the MSDI program and the Nutrition Department at Marywood!

All Scrubbed Up

Intern Jessie had the opportunity to watch the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center chief of surgery perform a sleeve gastrectomy. She was required to get scrubbed up just the same as everyone who was actually involved in the surgery! She was then given the opportunity to watch one of the dietitians conduct two post-surgery diet sessions with the veteran while they were recovering in the ICU and then med surg.

Food For Everyone

Last year, The Food Bank of Delaware distributed 14, 497,316 pounds of food statewide.  Intern Colleen spent time here was with their Community Health Educator promoting WIC participation. From Community Gardens to their Backpack program, this unsuspecting warehouse located in Newark, Delaware works tirelessly to ensure that everyone in Delaware can eat.

Making Nutrition Fun!

Intern Ann leads a mini cooking demo making fruit pizzas with children at grief camp at Hillside Farms. 
Hillside Farms provides a week-long summer camp for children who have experienced major grief, trauma or loss. The camp uses farm-based interventions to promote healing and community. At this camp, Ann was able to go talk to the kids about fruits and vegetables and food's role in healing. Her time ended with a pop-up produce stand with food from the food pantry, where we gave the children - who have a higher probability of being food insecure - the opportunity to shop through the produce and take food home to their families.

Grocery Store Tours

Intern Alicia developed a grocery store tour that outlined the grocery shopping process from meal planning and making a list to healthy tips for choosing items and reading food labels. She presented this tour to participants in the Wayne Memorial Food Prescription Program in Wayne county, PA.

Working together

Interns Erin and Mitchell worked together to deliver a Health Promotion presentation at the Blooming Grove office for the Pike County Area Agency on Aging.

Nutrition at West Point

Intern Jennifer took advantage of the unique opportunities afforded by the distance internship option to secure a spot as the first EVER dietetic intern at the United States Military Academy West Point!

Food is Medicine

Intern Tabitha offers nutrition education at a mobile food pharmacy. These mobile food pharmacies in the Charlotte, NC area are used as an avenue for nutrition education to target specialty diets for diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart health. The booth was set up in conjunction with a local emergency food supplemental program, Loaves & Fishes, and the area hospital systems, Atrium health and Novant health. The purpose of the mobile food pharmacy is to promote the idea that "Food is Medicine." Tabitha wanted to develop a program that would provide the most impact for the community and be able to reach all individuals for the area that Loaves & Fishes serves, while also being sustainable for them to continue upon completion of her internship rotation. 

Spooky Themed Meal

Intern Monica planned and budgeted for a Halloween themed meal during her food service management rotation at Elkins Crest Health and Rehab.

Developing Nutrition education

Intern Jennifer shows off marketing materials she made to advertise a class at the Eating and Body Image Therapy Center in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. She developed the program titled Nutrition Education for a Vulnerable Population: Weight Cycling and Different Approaches to Health after seeing a need in her community.

Helping the Unhoused

Intern Sarah completed her community rotation with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.  Even though she had to work remotely due to COVID-19, she was able to achieve her primary goal of helping the unhoused population and creating resources for them. Here she is presenting her work.

Promoting the Profession

Intern Siena shares some posters that she made during her community rotation to promote RDNs and healthy nutrition information. Siena says "This was probably my favorite part of my rotation because I got to interact with the YMCA members and promote the field of dietetics. They were all very receptive and interested in the nutrition basics. When they asked what I was doing I explained it as taking the stress out of healthy eating. I further explained all of the education that I had completed and said because I did all the hard work, my goal is to take all the complex information and make it easy for anyone to understand." 

Distributing Food during COVID!

Intern Sofia safely distributing food with a coworker at Low Country Food Bank in NC!

Garden Harvesting

Intern Hollin doing some community garden harvesting for Tarrant Area Food Bank in TX.

Distributing Healthy Foods and Recipes at Tulsa Cares!

Intern Nathan distributing healthy recipes to go along with fresh produce at his community site Tulsa Cares in Oklahoma!

Fresh Produce and Healthy Foods Accessible to All!

Interns Nicole and Kathleen distributing fresh produce to children at Hillside Grief Camp. Their goal was to dignify food access and make the process of distributing the food as easy and normal as possible for the children.

Cooking Matters with Kids!

Intern Tori completed a Cooking Matters Cooking Class with these smiling students!

Jersey Fresh Event for Shoprite

Intern Samantha grilling peaches for her Jersey Fresh Farm to Table event for the Shoprite of Greater Morristown.

Education at the Library!

Intern Mandy at the Eversham Library representing the Shoprite of Marlton NJ. Mandy spent the day offering healthy recipes, coupons, and nutrition education to patrons of the library.

Camp Energy!

Some of our interns (left to right) Makenna, Andrea, Bill, Liz, Malorie, and Tess at Camp Energy in Millville PA. This camp focuses on overall wellness and health promotion!

Rethink Your Drink!

Intern Nicole completed a lesson on healthy beverages with Fulfill Food Bank in New Jersey.

Intuitive Eating Presentation at Goodwill Industries

Intern Kate instructed clients of Goodwill Industries about Intuitive Eating.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Just a few of our Interns at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia !