Internship Reflection Paper

Brie Martino

Introduction

My name is Brie Martino and I am an intern with Strong4Life through Children's

Healthcare of Atlanta. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta created this organization because they

know how important it is to keep children healthy from the start. With this in mind, the main

mission of Strong4Life is to help busy families live healthier lives and they do this through

numerous outlets. The team is made up of wellness experts such as doctors, pediatricians, and

nutritionists who work with families to provide them with the best necessary care. On the

Strong4Life website, this organization provides access to tips, tools, advice from experts and

various resources all in an effort to assist parents with their tough job of parenting. In the

community, Strong4lLife does a ton of health education and promotion through hosting

community events, school nutrition programs, summer camps, and clinical programs. All of

these programs and events are done in an effort to prevent childhood diseases such as obesity and

diabetes, raise awareness on healthy living, and motivate families to create sustainable habits for

themselves.

The clients which Strong4Life serves are parents and children. Some of the families

involved with Strong4Life are struggling with health issues related to weight while others are

single mothers struggling to make ends meet who need knowledge of resources available to

them. Others come from low socioeconomic areas and have no idea how to make healthy food

decisions. Many of these families have members who are at risk of developing obesity or may

already be obese, however not all of the families involved in this organization are. Anyone can

visit the website and learn more about tips to help their kids eat well and be more active.
 Description of Experience

My role as a child wellness intern was to complete research that could provide the

research director, Dr. Welsh, with more insight into her own research. Most of her recent studies

have been related to low-calorie sweeteners and added sugars in foods and beverages and the

association they may have to chronic diseases in adults and children. It was a little intimidating

at first knowing that I was going to conduct my own research study and provide her with new

findings. However, once I got started and remained open with her throughout the process, I felt

excited and motivated to do my best so I could provide her with quality information. One of the

coolest and most rewarding feelings was showing up with something I learned, sharing it with

Dr. Welsh, and learning that it was new information to her too. It made me realize that no one

knows everything and research can teach us something new every day because things are

constantly changing. At the end of all my researching, data collection, and analyzing, I felt very

accomplished and proud of myself for doing something I felt so intimidated by in the beginning.

It was a rewarding feeling presenting my hard work to my team members, supervisor, and

professor and receiving positive feedback.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

A challenging part of the internship was sitting behind a computer each day and not

getting to do as many hands-on tasks as I thought I would. I spent most hours of the day looking

up articles and analyzing articles for my research. What made it so hard was that I wasn’t getting

an instant result. I quickly started to realize that researching is a process and isn’t something I

can get done in just one sitting. This was a huge adjustment for me because I am used to

completing tasks quickly and then moving on to something different. Another difficult aspect of

this internship was having to use Microsoft Excel within the first week when I had only used it a
few times prior. I had to get comfortable asking my supervisor for help which ended up

benefiting me because I spent less time making mistakes. Since I spent a lot of days researching

from home, I do wish I had spent more time in the office. It got kind of lonely working alone

every day and I would’ve liked the chance to interact and connect with members of the S4L

team.

Coming into this internship I was unaware of what to expect and had no previous

knowledge of this organization prior to applying. The only expectations I had coming into this

experience was that I was able to receive school credit and that I would gain valuable experience

that would be a catalyst as I start my career journey. I knew that working in research was going

to stretch me, but I was excited about a challenge. Even with the initial excitement, it worried me

that I was the first intern for my supervisor to take on because I would pretty much be the guinea

pig. I was aware it would take some patience and understanding on my end. Additionally, I

wanted to keep an open mind and not compare my experience with my other classmates.

I was fortunate to experience a hybrid role where I worked remote as well as a few days

on-site. This allowed flexibility in my schedule, but also hindered me in receiving full one-on-

one contact with my supervisor daily. While I initially didn’t like the lack of accessibility, I feel

as if this experience has challenged me to develop deeper problem-solving skills that will be

pivotal in the rest of my career. A major improvement to this internship would be the

implementation of structure and projects to complete during the duration of the term. Since it is

the summertime and things tend to slow down during the summer, there was not a large number

of events to engage with. For me, this meant the margin for highly structured projects was

limited. In the future, if I were to recommend this internship, I would suggest a more tactical
approach that is strategically designed with multiple projects and events that keep the intern

engaged and busy through the entire experience.

Because my internship has been mostly research-based, it has made me realize that my

passions and interests lie elsewhere. I have learned that my personality and my skills are better

suited for hands-on and interactive work. I love the thought of working with people to prevent

their health problems and conditions rather than treating them which is what the team in the

Strong4Life office focuses on doing. Although research can play a large role in prevention, this

experience has shown there are many alternative careers I may enjoy doing more.

Internship Preparedness

In terms of preparedness, I feel that the classes I took at GCSU did prepare me well for

this internship. I’m especially glad that I had Health Promotion and Program Planning and

Research Methods during my last semester because the material from both of these courses was

still fresh on my mind. The material I learned during both of these classes became most relevant

in the projects I worked on throughout the summer. For example, when Dr. Welsh asked me to

complete a literature review during the first week of the internship, I was confident I had the

skills to do that because I did this during my Research Methods class. Another example of when

I utilized my Research Methods knowledge was during my toddler and infant sweetener project.

My project consisted of finding background information, creating goals and objectives,

completing specific methods for data collection, analyzing my results and stating my findings,

and then providing future implications. Then, I used my Health Promotion and Program Planning

knowledge to evaluate my process and the impact of the project. Although I was not able to fully

evaluate the impact of my project, I could still use my knowledge to think of ways this project
could be evaluated in the future. It was great witnessing these concepts come to life throughout

the completion of projects.

Something I didn’t feel as prepared for that I wish I would’ve learned in one of my

classes was how to use Microsoft Excel. In all my classes we wrote tons of papers and produced

PowerPoint presentations so we had plenty of practice doing those things. But when it comes to

excel, my knowledge is limited. Being able to create well-organized spreadsheets and run

calculations through excel is an important skill many employers look for in candidates today.

Thankfully, Dr. Welsh was patient with me and showed me how to use it the first few days of my

internship, but it would’ve been beneficial to have had a better idea how it works prior to

starting. This could potentially be something that is added to the research methods course since it

is widely used in data collection and organizing information.

The School of Health and Human Performance does a pretty good job of preparing its

students for the real world. Besides what I stated above about how knowledge of Microsoft Excel

would’ve been helpful, I felt my courses gave me ample amounts of exposure to real-life topics

and concepts that opened my eyes to the world around me. The courses for the Public Health

major are very unique and unlike any other majors available at GCSU. Although they felt

overwhelming at times, the Community Health course, as well as the Health Promotion and

Program Planning course, gave us students an amazing opportunity to serve the communities and

people in Milledgeville. The lessons we learned through volunteering in communities will follow

us well into our careers and I believe make us more well-rounded individuals. I hope the school

never takes those opportunities away as they are invaluable experiences to students!
 Internship Performance

This internship provided a positive learning experience as it allowed me to strengthen my

writing, communication, critical thinking, and analytical skills. I noticed these skills were

improving as the weeks went by which encouraged to keep going. I was overall very satisfied

with my performance on my week to week assignments and projects. However, there were

moments when I didn’t feel useful and that I was doing random tasks just to fill the time. In those

moments I wish I would’ve had a designated list of tasks to complete. This experience was pretty

laid back which I liked because that is how my personality is. However, one thing I realized is

that because I do not enjoy conflict, I avoided speaking my mind when it came to my desire for

more structure. I did not want to seem like I was complaining about not having enough because

that wasn’t the problem. I did have enough and was able to fill my days with worthwhile things

like completing the CITI training, data entry and data analysis. All of those tasks expanded my

knowledge even more and I am fortunate to have been able to do a diverse set of things.

While I do think my communication skills improved, I do believe I could have more

improvement in this area. If something is bothering me, I need help or more to do, I should have

been more comfortable relaying these feelings or requests to whoever is above me. When it came

to meeting new people and following up with them over email, this area of communication was

improved. In terms of skills that need sharpening, I could definitely work on my time

management skills. Because a lot of my tasks were tentative, I tended to prolong the process or

get distracted when working on a task. I did have a strong work ethic when it came to giving

each assignment or project my all. I wanted to prove to myself and to my supervisor that was

capable of doing hard things. Honestly, I would rate my quality of work to be 8-9/10 because

nothing is ever perfect and there was always room for improvement.
 Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

Working as an intern for Strong4Life definitely impacted my personal, professional, and

academic goals. In regards to my personal goals, I really do hope to become an employee at

CHOA one day. I’ve always known I want to work with helping people and this internship gave

me clarity on more ways to do that. I gained valuable experience in learning how to network and

connect with people. For example at camp Strong4Life this past week, my two buddy counselors

were girls my age who are working to come Registered Dieticians. I asked them all about the

process and they gave me advice what to do and what not do. Without the opportunity of going

to camp, I would not have benefitted from learning insight into a career I am interested in.

Further, I found myself having more confidence and being more comfortable when introducing

myself and starting conversations. These were skills I wanted to improve on from the beginning

of my internship. I also had the chance to practice being flexible when situations happened that I

couldn’t control or schedules of others didn’t align with mine. Being flexible is another

important skill to have in the professional setting. Whenever I received constructive feedback on

projects or assignments, I learned to think of it more as a teachable moment for improvement

rather than someone pointing fingers at me. Shifting my mindset to think like this was a positive

personal development trait I gained.

I know further education is in my future, but I want to wait at least a year to figure out

what I want to focus on. Getting to work with Strong4Life and seeing the impact this

organization has made in teaching families and young children how to live healthier lives has

been inspiring. I’ve learned that education is one of the greatest tools for prevention and that

simply educating someone can change their lives forever. I want to be able to do this for people

one day and will do whatever it takes to be able to.