Staying on Track with Internships

Megan Maahs positivity wall Public health students were among those impacted by the very subject they’re studying when it came to field experiences. Sherry Hester, instructor in public health and education, kept her 14 students on track as they successfully shifted to online projects.

“A lot of projects students were working on were cancelled, like health fairs, doing programs at schools, so we needed to shift gears and work on things that were down the road for the host sites,” Hester says, noting students turned to projects like remote community surveying or developing health education programs or curricula.

“Students continued to get experience, it was just different. I really couldn’t be more proud of them for being that flexible. This is a life skill they worked on and on the fly. This is going to help them down the road in the work world,” Hester says.

Three internships and a job

This past spring semester, senior Leddia Tallman was busy with three internships to meet her community experience requirements. She was setting up educational tables at high school basketball games, coordinating a wellness challenge at a local senior wellness center, and calling community members for a survey related to substance abuse prevention. Then COVID-19 happened. She connected with Hester and confirmed that all three organizations would allow her to continue remotely.

Tallman had moments where she felt overwhelmed in balancing it all. About the same time, she also began a new part-time job as executive director of the Waukon Chamber of Commerce. And, as she moved to work remotely, she found she preferred being hands-on compared to sitting at a computer all day.

“This experience has made me realize that although there are some projects that I may not be excited to complete, the end result made it a thousand times worth it,” she says. “I know that I will be able to use pieces of these internships at all three sites not only in a career, but in my personal life as well.”

Getting a firsthand look, and then...

Fellow public health student Megan Maahs remained on site for an additional three weeks at her internship site, the People’s Community Health Clinic, Megan Maahs where she was interning with CEO Christine Kemp. Suddenly, she was helping the clinical team manage through a pandemic.

“As part of my role, I took it upon myself to come up with different ideas to spread positivity throughout the clinic, to let the staff know that we appreciate all that they were doing and we know that times are crazy, but we just want to give you electronic hugs and send some positivity their way,” Maahs says.

In early April, she moved to working remotely, assisting with a community health assessment and helping, from afar, with additional ideas to communicate support.

“It was hard for me to leave, I enjoyed being right there in the middle of it all,” Maahs says. “I couldn't have asked for a better internship or experience. I learned something new every single day. I hope to put what I learned in my back pocket to pull out while working in healthcare administration someday.”

"I want to praise our internship placement sites, some whom we have worked with for many years," Hester adds. "I think that is what makes our public health internship program at UNI so successful: we have phenomenal students, outstanding sites and great community partnerships."