There were many highlights from my experience interning at the Health Education Council. I was responsible for leading the Nutrition and Health lessons at the Pro Youth Summer Camp. It was a rewarding experience to be able to teach the middle and high school students about different topics of nutrition every week and recognizing the same students attend each week. I was happy to see that some students were very enthusiastic about the nutrition lessons. They participated in every activity and volunteered
to help with the food activity towards the end of the lesson. I also really enjoyed attending the
outreach events such as the seed plugging event at the Sacramento State Fair and the tabling
events that promoted eating healthy snacks and handing out recipe books.
What I wish was different
I encountered a few challenges while creating the nutrition lessons for the Pro Youth
Summer Camp. I had to modify the nutrition lessons a lot from the Nutrition Nuggets curriculum
that the lesson topics are based upon because the Nutrition Nuggets curriculum was not suitable
for the middle and high school audience. I also found that some of the nutrition topics were
easier to teach than other topics, for example the lesson covering Empty Calories and Extra
Sugars was easier to explain and create an activity for than the lesson covering Breakfast and
Grains/Fiber. Coming up with different interactive activities that the students would enjoy each
week was also difficult because the activities from the Nutrition Nuggets curriculum was not
adapted for middle and high school students. It was also difficult to manage the class a few times
because a few students would be distracted during the lesson and talk to the other students in the
class.
Advice
An advice I would share about this experience is to be pro-active about planning activities for events and make sure to adapt lesson plans to the audience/environment. For example, altering a nutrition lesson for elementary school students as an audience.
