The Internship

No, not the movie.  This is the real deal.  This semester I'm almost acting like a real adult and doing a 40-hour a week internship.

It's kind of a long and crazy story how I ended up getting this specific one but let's just say, it's been a huge blessing and I am very grateful things worked out how they did.  I am the Student Wellness Coordinator at the BYU-Idaho Health Center.  It's just me, myself and I that I work with so some days it can get a little boring as I'm used to the chaotic Admissions Office.

Sooooo here's my desk...I get to look at that beautiful plant all day, every day.  But it really isn't that bad because my desk is on a corner so people walk by all the time.

Now that you've had the tour, here's a little rundown of some of the things that I do :)

Worksite Wellness- My emphasis is actually called Community and Worksite Wellness so this fits in perfectly!  The whole internship does actually...  For worksite wellness I design monthly challenges for a few departments on campus.  The semester I did it for the Health Center, the College of Language and Letters, LDS Philanthropies and the Admissions Office (big surprise there!).  I'm actually SUPER excited about involving Admissions because I do it for the students, not the full-time employees.  In future semesters, I hope the interns will recruit more student offices and have competitions between them.  Challenges I designed this semester included a Fall Food Festival, Fitness BINGO, a Thanksgiving Tree and a spiritual challenge called Anxiously Engaged about doing service for others.

There are actually even more leaves on the finished tree since I took the picture!

Wellness Events- There were three events I was/ am in charge of this semester.  I organized a Women's Walk at the beginning of the semester.  This was a walk around campus for women during the priesthood session of General Conference that focused on the divinity of women by showing video clips from prophets and apostles.  On December 13th we are doing A Walk in the Life of Christ which is a similar event but it's for men and women.  There will be five stations participants will go to, each one focusing on a different aspect of Christ's life.  At the end of the walk we are going to have artwork by BYUI students depicting Christ's life as well as live harp music and hot chocolate!  The last even I put together was the Men's Premarital Forum.  Basically all I had to do for this one was reserve a room and coordinate the date with the speaker.  With all the events I am in charge of finding volunteers, getting supplies, reserving rooms, creating advertising etc.  Both of the walks have only been done 1-2 previous times so there isn't much information on them and I have flexibility to change what I want to change.  Here are two of the posters I designed which I'm pretty proud of!  The pictures on the Forum one are all done by using shapes in Publisher...you can't really see how awesome the little bride is from this far away but she's my favorite part.

Diabetes Support Group- One of my favorite things to work on has been the Diabetes Support Group.  Last semester they really struggled to get people to meetings and we have just rocked it this semester.  Our last meeting had 26 people there!  (most of them  weren't diabetic but that doesn't even matter!)  I am most excited for next semester's group.  I have been working with another student who is really interested in the group and we've come up with a plan to have a more stable and structured group.  On Wednesday, we met with one of the school administrators about this expansion and he's very supportive and even offered to give us a budget!!!  We have so many ideas for the group and I wish I was going to be around next semester to see what happens.

Patient Education- I am able to talk to patients about a variety of topics here at the Health Center.  Mostly, I do Stimulant Education for those who take medication for ADD/ ADHD.  It's really easy, I basically just go over the agreement they have with the health center for using the medication.  To date, I've talked to 123 people about this!  The second most prevalent topic I talk with patients about is just an introduction to wellness and the services on campus offered to students regarding their health and wellness.  At the beginning of the semester I wrote a blog about all the things we offer: Campus Health Resources. I also talk about sleep hygiene, stress management, nutrition and a few times I've had to talk to patients about the drug Accutane and do some education with them before they can take it (it's a very strong acne medication with a lot of really serious side effects).

Blogs- Speaking of the above linked blog...I write posts for two blogs each week.  A Wellness Blog and a Women's Wellness Blog.  It's fun because I get to write about whatever is interesting to me.  I usually just read a few articles on a subject and try to condense them into an article applicable to college students.  It's not hard core research as that's not my favorite thing to do :)  The blogs used to look a lot more bland so I jazzed them up and am very proud of how they turned out.  There isn't a huge reach for them quite yet but they average 10-100 views per post usually.

Misc. Meetings and Such- I work with Wellness Activities a lot and have weekly meetings with the rest of their leaders.  This is a good opportunity to learn what else is going on on campus for wellness.  A lot of times when I talk to patients I am able to direct them to these other services on campus that are free for them to use.  It's amazing how many people have no idea what's available to them.

Well, that's a rundown of what I've been doing all semester!  It keeps me generally busy and I don't even want to know how many emails I've sent over the last few weeks.  I've already hired my replacement for next semester and we begin training shortly.  I will be sad to leave but it's been a great experience.  Below is my binder of everything I've done so far this semester...and there's still three more weeks to add to it!