Julia Herskovic, a third year student who is a Physiology and Neuroscience major and a Global Health minor, spent six months interning at one of our local food banks, Feeding America San Diego (FASD), which aims to provide healthy food to low income families in the community.
As an intern at FASD, Julia taught the community about nutrition in enjoyable ways, one of them being healthy cooking classes for churches and middle schools.
When Julia was not out in the field, she was preparing materials for her outreach programs. Through these tasks Julia was able to develop various professional skills and realize how great the impact of volunteerism is in the health community.
“The nutrition intern program at FASD is centered around professional development, so I definitely learned a lot about working in a professional setting. The program is well-developed and specific; there is a timeline laid out that all interns follow so I was held accountable for a variety of duties. This definitely challenged me, but in the end, helped me to grow as a person and to learn how important it is to be dependable and productive in a professional setting.” “I also learned how important volunteerism is for the health community. We like to think that our community is perfect and has this whole ‘health’ thing figured out, but FASD showed me that we really don’t. There were pre- and post-class surveys for each of the cooking classes I taught, and in the beginning I was shocked about how little people really know about nutrition. In particular, I realized that children in our community really do not eat healthy. I learned that there is a lot of work to be done.”
After completing her field experience, Julia decided to take a nutrition class here at UC San Diego. Her experience as a nutrition intern has helped her better understand the topics discussed in class. Julia also hopes to continue helping our local community by sharing this amazing opportunity with her sorority and friends, in hopes of having more people involved in helping FASD through volunteering or interning at their San Diego location.
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