Intern Panel 

Meeting 5 of Fall 2020

Week 8: 11/18/20

Estimated attendance: 15 total

Guest Speaker: Sydney Cooper, Bailey Pruner, Theresa Hammond

Focus: Internship

 

Bailey Pruner is working on her combined Masters and DI at OSU

Theresa Hammond: Dietetic Internship at OHSU with some graduate classes

Sydney Cooper: Internship at OHSU 

Phoebe Luc: Combined master's dietetic internship on capstone track at OHSU. 

 

How did you choose your internship?

 

Bailey describes that she decided she wanted to stay in Oregon 

 

Theresa says she felt tied down in Oregon. Theresa did not share that she wanted to stay in Oregon or where else she was applying. She says her backup plan was originally to be a technician, however, there are low job options on the West Coast. Her professors told her a job search would require her to rely on her connections and meet with dietitians.

 

Sydney says that in her undergrad she felt she wanted to leave Oregon, although as it came to applying, she felt she wanted to stay in Oregon to stay close to her family. She was interested in staying in clinical concentration.

 

Phoebe Luc explains she looked in San Francisco, Las Angeles but as she further investigated the living costs and internship costs, she decided to stay in Oregon and go to OHSU. Phoebe advises applicants to have a few people edit your personal statement to maintain the authenticity of your story.

 

How do you keep up with the financial responsibilities?
 

Theresa has strong family support. Sydney also has strong support from her family and applied to FASFA and took out loans. Phoebe has had to take out loans and receives a stipend while doing her Fellowship. Theresa is taking out personal loans she has strong support from her husband. She works for 32 hours, has classes for 8 hours and does homework during the weekend. 


 

Can you talk a little more about the master's degree workload and what it looks like/what does it involve??

 

Phoebe started with classes and her internship the first year. During Phoebe's second year, she is taking heavy classes, doing her CAPSTONE.

 

Bailey is taking 12 credits and working on her CAPSTONE project. She is taking an advanced MNT class which takes a lot of time to work through. She is taking a biostatistics class. Her CAPSTONE is working on food insecurity and her friend is focused on lab work. Her internship will begin in the summer and end at the end of Winter term. They will end up taking a class during her internship.

 

Sydney says the price comes from extra graduate classes that she appreciates.

OHSU has a level 1 trauma center, has very unique opportunities, they are supportive, they are paired up with nursing students so that they can do home health visits that she doesn’t feel she would have gotten that opportunity anywhere else. Theresa appreciates the extra opportunities and the support from Dr. Stadler. People know the name of OHSU. 

 

CAPSTONE project

The thesis is work-heavy and focused on lab work and research. It is good for students going to do their Ph.D. Proposing a question that hasn’t been researched yet. 


Phoebe CAPSTONE project is in the NICU, evaluating very low birth rates and understanding failure to thrive. She will go through data collection and a presentation of her work. They are filling the gaps of a problem that is already relevant and recognized.

 

How did you decide to do either the masters or the stand-alone DI?

Bailey said she knew she would want to get a master's degree eventually and decided to finish it now while it is accessible and shorter while combined with the internship at OSU.
 

Sydney is not doing a master's because of financial reasons and feeling burnt out. She feels she would want to get a master's degree in a different focus.

 

Phoebe did not plan on doing a master's. However, after talking to Dr. Stadler, she felt that 

Do you plan on getting your master's down the road?

 

Theresa decided to just do the DI after talking to her mentors she feels it will be beneficial to get a master's in another focus to widen her skills. She plans on getting her master's degree, potentially in marketing and business management later on.

 

Sydney applied for four internships and had 3 interviews. The OHSU interview was towards the end of the window for interviews. She interviewed for Yale-New Haven in Connecticut. They asked her a lot of scenario questions. She also had an interview with Minnesota. There was no interviewer, instead, she recorded her answering questions. Phoebe says to be able to answer why you are interested in the program, some interviews ask scenario questions. 

Theresa said she was given a packet of questions and went through and prepared for all the questions. She said the OHSU interview was very informal and wanted to get to know her. She was able to flip questions and answers into ways that highlighted her.