Healthy Lifestyles Internship

I GOT AN INTERNSHIP!!!! Okay I had to do that! I am so excited!

A little background information:

I have been looking into internships for the past few weeks. I have 2 internships I have to complete 1) for Public health and 2) for Gerontology. I was going to do my Public Health internship at Jamestown Assisted living for elderly and continue and do my Gerontology internship there but I decided I would prefer to do the 2 internships in differing fields.

I started my search out with the idea that I probably would just end up doing my Public Health internship at Jamestown anyway. I had received a few emails from my adviser about some internship opportunities and sent in my resume and set up some interviews. I really wanted to do an internship at the Utah County Public Health department but from what I knew it was hard to find an internship there.

I had talked to someone at the Health Department and she let me know that she was unaware of any opportunities and some of the programs only had openings for Spring and Summer. I interviewed yesterday for a health literacy program and didn't feel really confident that it was what I wanted to do with my internship. I didn't feel like it best utilized my skills or interests. I made a list yesterday of all the new agencies I would call and started making calls.

I don't even know how I got the number for Eric, the director of the Health Promotion department within the Health Department, because I looked back and he wasn't on my list and I couldn't find his number later to cancel my interview. I got a call from a girl named Emilee who said she was over a work wellness program and wanted me to come in to interview. I accepted but once I was home I really wanted to call back and cancel. I just thought that they wouldn't like me that they wouldn't hire me. I thought, how can they hire a fat person to promote health!?

Dan told me just to go and if I really wanted to cancel to wait until the morning. I re thought it and went in. Emilee was really nice and I felt more comfortable once I was there. I was really happy to see that Emilee had a list of exactly what she expected of her intern and she herself had graduated from the Public Health Education program at BYU. I really liked the kind of activities I would be working on like promotion and research!

Emilee called me when I was at lunch with Dan and told me she had spoken with her boss and that they would love to have me as their intern! I was really surprised!

The Healthy Lifestyles program is a work incentive program offered to all the Utah County employees. Participates can earn 500$ a year for meeting specific criteria and if their spouse meets the same criteria they can earn 250$. They use the Apple Program to track the employees health and my job would be to work on activity lists, competitions, newsletters, and brown bag lunch presentations!

None the less I am super excited!