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.