INTERNSHIP PROJECTS
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Butterfly Festival
Nutrition Program
Cooking Camp
Community Health Worker Training
Community Program Proposal
EFNEP Demonstration
At the beginning of my internship, I was able to help showcase some of the services offered by Clemson Extension to the community during the Butterfly Festival at Roper Mountain Science Center. My role was to help interact with the children and parents. I was able to engage the children in butterfly crafts, talk with them about the parts of a butterfly, and speak with the parents about services offered by Clemson Extension. This was related to all three of the original goals set for the internship. This helped with goal one by enabling me to be a part of some of the services and programs offered in the community and develop professional relationships with other Clemson Extension agents, who could function as critical stakeholders for future programs. Goal two was related because I was able to work with similar children and parents of those who I would work with in the Nutrition Program (see below). The festival also aided with the third goal because I was able to see what types of resources Clemson Extension already has to offer the community.
These are some of the amazing people that help make everything possible at Clemson Extension.
I learned how to can strawberry jam to help promote services offered at the Extension office. The jam was also used during the festival!
The festival also included some adorable sheep!
These are some of the amazing people that help make everything possible at Clemson Extension.
During my internship, I had the opportunity to work with Carol Salley, a Nutrition Educator Assistant, in the Food and Nutrition department within Clemson Extension. She works with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). I was able to go with her into group homes for children to provide nutrition education about fruit and dairy. This experience helped to achieve the second goal of my internship by providing ideas for another nutrition program and gave me experience with food demonstrations with children. This project also helped with the third goal in that I was working with children in the community. I was able to see some the nutrition knowledge already possessed in the community to be able to determine how to focus on other health related nees.
A look at the food demonstration set-up and educational materials, including MyPlate.
One of the most exciting projects I was a part of was the very first true Clemson Health Extension program. The goal of the cooperative experience was to be able to develop programs that can be delivered by a Health Agent. After a successful 4H program I was a part of, the teacher asked that the team I was a part of come back with another program. My role was to help create and develop healthy and exciting snack recipes for the target audience. Additionally, I assisted during the educational portion of the program and demonstrated a healthy snack with the children. The lesson covered the importance of fruits and vegetables. The demonstrations displayed food from all five food groups and helped to expose the children to foods they may not have otherwise tried. The second goal was primarily targeted with this project. The program allowed for the creation of the nutrition sheet specified in the second goal. The program also provided a setting to work with both children and parents in the community. This project helped pave the way for future Clemson Health Extension programs.
Click here for a downloadable version of this presentation.
In order to be able to continue with the rest of the cooperative exerience, I had to complete a Community Health Worker (CHW) training course. The training course has helped to teach me how to be effective with my future clients. The course also taught me important lessons for working with low-income, chronically ill, uninsured populations, such as cultural humility, client-centered practices, and care managment. This project is related to my first and third goal for the internship. The first goal was related because the training and required fieldwork experience enabled me to learn about some of the important stakeholders within Greenville County for future programs. I was able to be in the training with other CHWs from different areas of the county and state, and they were able to provide a new perspective on some of the important stakeholders to be considered. The third goal was also related through the field work. The fieldwork helped to place me in the community navigating for resources as my future clients do to help me identify some of the health related needs in the community. Part of this training involved preparing and presenting material to the rest of the class.
During my internship, I was able to help with a Cooking Camp for high-risk teens through a program called New Impact at GHS and 4H through Clemson Extension. The young adults, 9-14 years old, were either at risk for or had already developed hypertension, diabetes, obesity, or another chronic condition. The project related to goal two because I was able to work with children and subsequtently their parents to provide education on food safety, healthy cooking techniques, and nutrition. This related to my third goal as well because the children face some of the health related problems and barriers that have been identified in the Greenville community.
I helped in small group settings teach the teens about food safety, cooking techniques, and nutrition.
It was important for the teens to see the camp counselors preparing new foods in a healthy way.
I was able to present a lesson on the importance of protein in the body.
I helped in small group settings teach the teens about food safety, cooking techniques, and nutrition.
Helping to prepare the food for the demonstration!
Preparing with a fellow intern!
My snack station! Making a celery, hummus, and goldfish snack.
Helping to prepare the food for the demonstration!
Here is a flyer that I helped to create that was distributed to the parents after the Nutrition Program. The flyer helps teach the parents how to make healthy snacks for their children.
During my internship, I had the opportunity to use my educational background and creativity to develop a program idea to use within the community to improve health. This project was presented to the managers and directors of Clemson Extension and the Accountable Communities department at Greenville Health System. This project helped me to accomplish goal one and three. Goal one was related because I had to identify some of the key stakeholders to make my idea possible. The project was related to goal three because I had to identify some of the health related needs in the community to develop an idea that would be beneficial and improve health in the community.