Amber Grigley, Ohio State University
This content was created by an EHS intern to describe intern experiences. It has not been revised or edited to conform to agency standards. The findings and conclusions are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SUPEH Intern, Summer 2017
This summer, I participated in the Summer Program in Environmental Health. Over the course of these 9 weeks, from June 5th to August 4th, I was given a tour of all facets of environmental health as well as career options in the federal government. The program involved regular field trips, supplemental talks, and excursions. As a SUPEH intern, I was offered a large number of opportunities and feel fortunate to have been selected.
I participated in a long list of activities. Every week, the interns hosted a journal club talk followed by an expert talk. The journal clubs were interactive learning experiences that correlated with a weekly theme. To support what was learned in the journal club, the weekly Friday field trip was also related to the theme of the week. For example, following the food safety journal club, the field trip was to audit a Waffle House. This allowed the knowledge of food safety and restaurant inspections to be put into practice. Other activities included more educational talks and presentations throughout the 9 weeks. As a SUPEH intern, I was also able to participate in other unique opportunities. These included: 2 days of shadowing with Gwinnett County Health Department, a trip to Cape Canaveral with USPHS officers performing Vessel Sanitation on cruise ships, trapping mosquitos and hosting a table on mosquito awareness, shadowing on an audit of a chicken processing plant, and going to the FEMA Center for Domestic Preparedness in Alabama and observing the EHTER Ops training. Along with the many activities we participated in, we were also all assigned projects to complete over the course of the 9-weeks. My project was to do a keyword analysis to identify trends and gaps in food safety research conducted between 1990 and 2017. This project really shined a light on skills I might need in my environmental health career. My favorite experience was the trip to Cape Canaveral to participate in vessel inspections. I had never been on a cruise ship and I had never heard of the vessel sanitation program. The expansive knowledge that these officers had was truly inspiring and cemented my desire to be a part of USPHS.
Those I worked and interacted with during my internship were nothing short of amazing. This internship was something I had always dreamed of and everyone was so kind. They genuinely wanted me to have the best learning experience possible. This allowed me have a great experience with all that I participated in. I can’t think of any experiences that didn’t add to my environmental health knowledge or help me in some way. Overall, being a SUPEH intern was an amazing opportunity that I will remember for the rest of my life.