Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc
Length of Rotation: 1 week
Performed patient assessments and redesigned educational handout.

During my time at Chase Brexton in Baltimore, MD, I had the opportunity to counsel individuals with HIV/AIDS as well as those suffering from substance abuse problems and other issues. During this time I created a brochure entitled Choose How You Loose to encourage individuals to become physically active in ways that they enjoy. Inside the brochure is an insert with tables outlining estimates of how many calories are burned during various activities.

Choose How You Loose Brochure
Choose How You Loose Brochure Insert -- How many calories are burned during various activities

Montgomery County Public Schools
Length of Rotation: 1 week
Visited school lunch sites and participated in a fruit/vegetable study.

The school lunch program has been around for decades but I had never before seen the process from behind-the-scenes. My week at the Montgomery County Public School district office gave me an opportunity to see the role of a dietitian in dealing with governmental and local food service issues. I took some time during the week to visit some of the local schools and see how food service operated at the local level. I talked to many of the kitchen managers who told me some of the difficulties and joys of their job.

One day was spent involved in an observational study where we observed children and recorded their food choices in regards to fruits and vegetables and how much of those items were actually consumed. The main emphasis of the study was to note children's fruit and vegetable consumption and how much of that consumption was influenced by their peers.

Every month the county creates a newsletter that is distributed to the students to take home for their parents. I wrote an article for this newsletter on healthy snacks parents can provide for their children. A complete version of the article is located below.

Snacking 101: Healthy Snacks Parents can Provide for their Children

Massachusetts Department of Education
Length of Rotation: 1.5 weeks
Developed a questionnaire for food service directors and contacted them to collect data regarding school participation and use of the Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II).

Working at the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) was a wonderful learning opportunity. I studied and read a lot about the Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II). I was able to understand the reimbursement requirements for schools participating in the school breakfast and lunch programs. I talked to many food service directors throughout the state to get a sense of the struggles and successes they have incurred while participating in these programs.

The Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II) was started about six years ago, and since that time the DOE has worked hard to enroll many qualifying schools throughout the state. However, due to confusion surrounding record keeping and school reporting procedures the program has had some difficulties. The purpose of my assignment was to begin unifying reimbursement reporting procedures between schools throughout the entire state. The Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II) has many stipulations and complex requirements. Many food service directors were inaccurately reporting their numbers for reimbursement and did not understand the program completely. At the state level we wanted to create a uniformed system that all the schools would use in reimbursement reporting. In order to do that, we needed to get a sense of how food service directors were reporting currently. After learning about the program myself, I developed a basic questionnaire to send to all participating food service directors. I contacted each director personally by phone and explained what we were trying to do in terms of unifying the schools and educating directors on correct procedures. The questionnaires were to be sent out and then returned for analysis so that a training of all directors could take place on August 16th. The hope was that during this training we could train all directors to report numbers and run their programs similarly. This meeting would also give an opportunity to teach new directors about the Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II) and how it should be working at their schools.

Example of questionnaire for participating Universal Breakfast Program (Provision II) food service directors

Prince Georges County (PG) Office on Aging
Length of Rotation: 1 week
Received a general overview of the aging program and its goals.

My week at the office on aging was spent receiving a general overview of the operation. I met with the leaders of the elderly congregate lunch programs and glimpsed the struggle it can be to obtain a location to feed the participants, order enough food for varying numbers of participants, and the difficulty that sometimes arises when trying to receive reimbursement. One highlight of the week was making home visits to elderly citizens applying for home delivered meals. It was nice to enter the home of these seniors and feel as if I could help make their lives better.