Final Project

My final project for my internship at the American Lung Association in Minnesota was to organize the food/budget, lodging, and overall logistics of the SHIP Technical Assistance Regional Training.  This was a state-wide training that was targeted to various community leadership teams that are working under the Statewide Health Improvement Program.

Planning for this event began in early April.  When I found out that I would be in charge of the food and budgeting, I got to work right away.  The theme for this training was "zero waste and eco-friendly" so it was somewhat of a challenge.  I began researching local vendors for organic foods and compostable serveware/silverware.  I got in touch with the Chester Creek Cafe since their menu holds many organic and nutritious food items.  I also checked out the Whole Foods Co-Op for natural sodas and organic fruit.  Since the training would be held from early morning till the afternoon, we also needed food and drinks for the morning.  For this, I went to Starbucks and the Positively 3rd Street Bakery.  Starbucks has organic coffee (both regular and decaf) along with awesome herbal tea.  The 3rd Street Bakery has amazing cookies, bars, and muffins, that all use organic whole wheat and other natural ingredients.  The biggest challenge for this was staying within our budget.  We had about $1000 budgeted for the Duluth training, and there were roughly 65 people attending.  This training was also being held at Lake Superior College.

On top of budgeting and creating the menu for the training, I also helped with lodging and logistics.  Since attendees weren't all from Duluth, we needed to offer lodging for them.  We wanted to offer only smoke-free lodging so I researched all the hotels and motels in Duluth, and formulated a list of only the smoke-free establishments.  I then forwarded that list to Jon Hunter, a member of the Technical Assistance team, since he was the head organizer for lodging.

As for logistics, I was to see that the overall training went smoothly.  We needed to make sure that we had everything we needed (signage, proper waste disposal, folders, etc...).  I put together 300 folders that were to be distributed at all the trainings around Minnesota.  This entailed slapping a SHIP sticker on the front of each one, and stuffing them with information and a CD.  Since the theme of these trainings was "eco-friendly", we decided to put all the PowerPoint presentations, and other handouts onto a CD instead of printing out numerous pages of paper.  This was a good idea, but it also required burning 300 CD's, which took some time.  I also printed and laminated signs for the training, since not everyone is familiar with the campus at Lake Superior College.  One of the most important things for this training, in my opinion, was the proper disposal of all this food and waste.  Going along with our eco-friendly theme, our goal was to have no more than 2 pounds of waste!  This was a challenge because 65 people eating lunch is a perfect equation for a lot of left overs!  Because of this challenge, I got in touch with AJ and Susie from the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) for more information and help.  They graciously let us borrow composting bins and bags with signage, and also recycling containers.  With the help of WLSSD, our goal of 2 pounds of waste or less was possible.

The actual training in Duluth took place on May 13 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm.  The previous day, I went to the Whole Foods Co-Op and Starbucks.  I picked up all the fruit and natural sodas from the Co-Op.  Then I went Starbucks to place an order for Pat McKone to pick up in the morning, since it's right by her office.  The morning of the training, I stopped by the 3rd Street Bakery to pick up 72 muffins and cookies that I had ordered.  I didn't have to worry about the food from Chester Creek Cafe, since they were catering for us.  When I got to LSC, I helped set up all the food during the morning.  We got coffee and tea set up, along with juice, muffins, and organic fruit.  The morning session was being held in a large room upstairs, however, we were required to eat lunch in the atrium because the students of LSC were using our room for graduation that same afternoon.  Because of this, we had to move literally everything down to the atrium.  There were two breakout sessions total, one before lunch and one after lunch.  When everyone went to the first session, I and a couple others helped prepare for lunch.  We moved all the food and materials down to the atrium.  When the caterer came with our food we set up and organized all the sandwiches and salad.  We also set up the proper waste bins since we were using compostable silverware, plates, and napkins.  I didn't stay for the second session, so after everyone was done eating, I helped clean up, made sure all the waste was properly disposed, and left.

I learned a couple things after this event.  First, "going green" is harder than it seems.  Although very much worth it, I think it made this experience a bit more challenging.  I think one reason for this is because there aren't many vendors that supply eco-friendly materials.  I am grateful that I found The Green Mercantile because they supplied us with all the plates, napkins, silverware, bowls, and anything else we needed for this training.  Another thing I learned is that it is always a good idea to have a back-up plan.  No matter how prepared you think you are, problems can always occur, and outside variables may interfere, so always have a plan B.  I say this because I spent all this time preparing and organizing the menu for this training, and on the day of the training, one of the participants said that she was a huge water drinker.  I didn't even think about providing water for a beverage!!  Luckily, I talked to the LSC food services and they supplied us with a couple pitchers of ice water.  The final thing I learned was to allow yourself A LOT of time to plan.  It took me a month to organize everything for this training.  After many calls, hundreds of emails, and a handful of visits to local places, I got everything that was needed, and the absolute best part is that the participants absolutely loved the food and we stayed within our budget!

Overall Experience

Internship Objectives
1. Create/design a minimum of 3 educational resources or handouts. (Objective Met)
2. Table and be a resource person at 5 different events. (Objective Met)
3. Network and build a relationship with at least 3 health professionals. (Objective Not Met)
4. Become a member of a coalition/committee. (Objective Met)
5. Conduct extensive research on at least 3 issues in health education. (Objective Met)

Mission Statement
To save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy, and research.

Biggest Challenge For Me
I think the biggest challenge for me was the fact that I had three different supervisors throughout my internship.  I was working with Jan Salo Korby, a respiratory therapist, for the first three and half weeks.  She unfortunately left the American Lung Association, so everything I was working on up to that point pretty much went out the window.  I worked on a lot of issues regarding asthma and COPD with Jan.  I was an active member in the Minnesota Asthma Coalition, jump started the planning process for Asthma Awareness Month, joined Better Breathers Club (a support group for adults with lung disease), and helped plan the Asthma 101 training for school nurses.  After Jan left, my next two supervisors were Deede Westerman and Jill Rogers.  I did a little bit of everything while working with them, so the transition between Deede and Jan wasn't much of a challenge at all.

If I Could Change One Thing 
If I could change one thing about my internship, it would definitely be time management.  Ideally, if I completed 24 hours a week, I could finish my 360-hour internship in 15 weeks.  Unfortunately, my internship hours were a bit imbalanced.  During the first half of the semester, I completed an average of about 18-20 hours a week.  Because of this lack of hours early on, I found myself completing close to 40 hours a week towards the end of the semester.  This amount of work ended up to be a bit much at times since I have another job and an online class.

How This Internship Impacted My Career
I feel that I have learned a whole lot more about the health education field through this internship experience.  Working for a non-profit organization is not an easy job.  The need for education is always in high demand and resources are always limited.  I've also learned to always allow yourself extra time in anything you do.  Much of the events that I was apart of took many hours of behind the scene work and legwork.  I believe I reached out to many people in the community through this experience and I am reinforced of my want of helping people because of my internship.  Although I am not sure that I will be doing work that is exactly related to my internship, but the rewarding feeling of helping others will always be a priority in whatever work I do in the future.

Responsibility 1

Assess Individual and Community Needs for Health Education

Competency B: Collect health-related data
Sub-competency 1 - Use appropriate data-gathering instruments

The American Lung Association is a strong advocate for smoke-free homes.  One of our main focuses was to help landlords and property managers rent out smoke-free units to their tenants.  Although there are a number of rental units that have gone smoke-free already, there are still many more that have not.  Whether this is because property managers aren't aware of the dangers, or because they don't want to, either way we contacted them about this issue.  Creating a calling list from scratch is a time-consuming task especially when you don't know much about the area.  Making phone calls to various HRA's and housing authorities were a great way to obtain a list of property managers.  After obtaining this list of names, I went to whitepages.com to do a reverse look-up to get phone numbers.  From there, I made calls to various landlords in the appropriate regions to invite them to an informational meeting/lunch session.  Here we had an attorney join us to help share information on policies regarding smoking, and to help answer any questions.

Responsibility 2

Plan Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

Competency A: Involve people and organizations in program planning
Sub-competency 3 - Obtain commitments from individuals who will be involved

At the beginning of my internship in late January, I was very active in the Minnesota Asthma Coalition, a state-wide coalition in Minnesota that deals with asthma issues around schools, public facilities, and homes.  During the first meeting that I attended, I was responsible for writing down the minutes for that session.  I was then in charge of putting together a sub-committee to develop an Asthma 101 training for school nurses.  To organize this, I used a nice online tool called "Doodle."  Doodle is a nice way to organize and obtain commitments from people since it lays out all possible days and times that people are available, then lets the user know which day and time works the best for everyone.

Competency A: Involve people and organizations in program planning
Sub-competency 4 - Develop plans for promoting collaborative efforts among health agencies and organizations with mutual interests

I worked with Jan and the Minnesota Asthma Coalition to plan upcoming events such as World Asthma Day, and the Asthma 101 training for school nurses.  There were a wide range of professions in this coalition, so it was a great way to network with different people and obtain different resources.  It was also great since everyone in this coalition obviously had the same goal in mind: to improve/reduce the occurrence of asthma in Minnesota.

Responsibility 3

 Implement Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

Competency A: Initiate a plan of action
Sub-competency 4 - Facilitate groups

During my time with the American Lung Association, I had the privilege of facilitating and being apart of Better Breathers Club, a support group for adults with any type of lung disease.  At first I was a little nervous, since I've never facilitated a group of older adults before, but I found out right away that this group is amazing and that I can relate to them since I have asthma as well.  We met on the first Tuesday of every month at the copper-top church on Central Entrance.  My responsibilities were to bring food/snacks and make coffee, lead the arm/breathing exercises before the speaker came, and to assist our guest speaker in any way.  Like I said before, this group of 8-10 people was amazing, and I am thankful to have met each and every one of them.

Responsibility 4

Conduct Evaluation and Research Related to Health Education

Competency E: Interpret results from evaluation and research
Sub-competency 2 - Analyze research data

For the American Indian conference, our main message was aimed at reducing the occurrence of SIDS by keeping smoke away from children.  Since this population has the highest rate of SIDS, we wanted to make our message loud and clear.  We tabled at this conference and also had a display and many resources available to the attendees.  Before tabling at this conference, however, I conducted extensive research on the topic of SIDS.  Not only did I research SIDS, but I was looking for studies that related smoking to SIDS and asthma in children.  I found anything I could from fact and statistics, to journal articles and studies.

Responsibility 5

Administer Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

Competency A: Exercise organizational leadership
Sub-competency 1 - Conduct strategic planning

Over the last month, I have been helping to organize and plan the first ever Statewide Health Improvement Plan (SHIP) training over 6 regions in Minnesota.  These trainings started on May 5 and will go on until the end of this month.  The theme of these trainings is "zero-waste," and "eco-friendly," so we are trying to provide local organic food, with minimal or reusable packaging.  I am in charge of the lunch for the Duluth training, so I went to local vendors around Duluth such as 3rd Street Bakery, the Whole Foods Co-Op, the Chester Creek Cafe, and Starbucks.  There, I researched what organic/local foods they have to offer, and created a budget.  I also went to the Green Mercantile to budget for compostable napkins, silverware, plates, and cups.

On top of being in charge of food, I was also responsible for the proper disposal of any waste.  For this, I went to the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) and rented compost/recycling bins along with proper signage and compostable bags so we could properly dispose of any waste from these trainings.

Another thing I helped organize was lodging for the attendees.  We wanted only smoke-free lodging for the participants, so I researched all the smoke-free hotels/motels in the Duluth area.  Luckily there were a handful that were 100% smoke free such as the Inn on Lake Superior, Canal Park Lodge, Holiday Inn, and the Sheraton.

Responsibility 6

Serve as a Health Education Resource Person

Competency B: Respond to requests for health information
Sub-competency 2 - Refer requesters to valid sources of health information

If I had to name the one thing I did most frequently while interning with the American Lung Association, I would say that it was tabling!  I tabled at numerous events and fairs.  During my internship, I tabled at the Children's Conference at the DECC, the Duluth Snowlympics, the Lake Superior Zoo, Lake Superior College for their health fair, the UMD Smoke-free kickoff week, the health fair at Fon Du Lac Community College and Silver Bay High School, St. Scholastica for Earth Day, Vermillion Community College, and Homecroft Elementary for their family fitness fair.


Competency C: Select materials for dissemination
Sub-competency 3 - Assemble educational material of value to the health of of individuals and community groups

With all the tabling I did, there needed to be preparation for each event.  Many times, I needed to put together a display of some sort so people could visually see our message.  Along with that, we needed to choose which types of materials and handouts we wanted to give to the public.

Aside from tabling, I assembled many other education materials to give to local recipients.  A popular handout that the American Lung Association has talks about secondhand smoke and the dangerous effects it has on kids, infants, and even pets.  We have a list of veterinarians, drivers education programs, schools, and hospitals that use our resources, so the demand for these secondhand smoke packets is always high.  I spent a lot of time assembling these materials and putting together educational folders for various people, and groups.

Responsibility 7

Communicate and Advocate for Health and Health Education

Competency B: Apply a variety of communication methods and techniques
Sub-competency 4 - Use culturally sensitive communication methods and techniques

The American Lung Association was tabling at an American Indian conference so I put together a display that had information about the effects of smoke and secondhand smoke on children.  Another main focus of this health conference was to educate the community about SIDS and how smoking  increases the occurrence of this syndrome.  Since this tabling was on a reservation, it was important to be culturally sensitive and meet their needs.  I researched many statistics about the American Indian population and the rate of SIDS.  I found many resources and handouts that were targeted towards this population, and made one of my own.

Competency B: Apply a variety of communication methods and techniques
Sub-competency 5 - Use appropriate techniques for communicating health education information

One of the biggest goals of the American Lung Association is to aid in making rental units smoke free.  Not only is this better for the tenants, but it is also better for business (for the landlords and property managers).  However, many property owners aren't aware of this, so I helped create a list, from scratch, of landlords and property managers all around northern Minnesota.  After creating this list, we sent out invitations to invite the landlords to a lunch/informational meeting.  Here, landlords would receive a free meal, and learn everything they need to know about smoke-free rental housing.  Although we sent out invitations, I also made follow-up calls to each individual to get RSVPs. 

Competency B: Apply a variety of communication methods and techniques
Sub-competency 6 - Use oral, electronic and written techniques for communicating health education information

Interning with the American Lung Association, I got the chance to create handouts and education material of my own.  I facilitated a support group called Better Breathers Club (BBC), which is for adults with any type of lung disease.  Because BBC is not very well-known, I created a brochure for physicians to give to patients with lung disease who may be interested in joining.  Another educational piece I created was a one-piece handout that had information on nicotine and different sources of nicotine replacement methods.

Final Hours

Responsibility 1 - 9 hours
Responsibility 2 - 34.5 hours
Responsibility 3 - 8 hours
Responsibility 4 - 11 hours
Responsibility 5 - 5 hours
Responsibility 6 - 119.5 hours
Responsibility 7 - 34.5 hours
Other - 138.5 hours

Total = 360 hours