University of Oklahoma Internship (Week 2)

University of Oklahoma has a really beautiful campus! The heat index gets all the way up to 100 a lot of days, but I love it!

I work at the Walker Tower which is a very tall building and they're currently building more bunkers since they have Tornado season! I was very shocked by this because Indiana does not have these at all!

We work at the Walker East side! The best side!

Our view from our office! So pretty!

Well it’s been the first two weeks and let me tell you that is has been an amazing experience! The first week I was introduced to our supervisor, Dorothy (Dot) Flowers who is the general manager, marketing and nutritional analysis at the Housing and Food Services at the University of Oklahoma. She discussed with us the tasks she deals with which is setting up programs and finding solutions for individuals who have therapeutic diets. Also, she oversees everything at the dining halls to make sure they are running smoothly.

Officially a Sonner!

After that Dot escorted me to our office and I filled out some paperwork to become an official Sooner! I was more than excited to get an ID card even though it would be only useful for 2 months! I want to keep that ID forever!

Once we finished with the paperwork Dot explained to me the 3 projects that I will be doing.

11.) Recipe and Development Quality

a. This is when I will be working alongside a chef or production manager to identify a recipe that they would like to modify or develop. I will then have to conduct a nutritional analysis of the recipe. My favorite part is that I will have the opportunity to prepare it and do a taste test evaluation! Once I’m finished I will have to do a finalized recipe which will contain the recipe title, yield and portion size cooking, time and temperature, ingredients and quantities, as well as the preparation. Once that is finalized, I will do an evaluation of my project.

b. For this project I will be working alongside Jen who is in charge of preparing new recipes. She just arrived back from vacation, so later this month we will be setting up a time with her to brainstorm some ideas!

2.) Employee In Service

a. With this project, I had to present and evaluate an in-service training session for employees of the Department. I must develop a written lesson plan, utilize two or more visual aids, provide resources, and evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation by measuring knowledge gained by the audience and behavior change resulting from the in-service presentation.

b. These are some of the topics that we could address:

i. Dress Code

ii. Equipment Use

iii. Safety & Sanitation

iv. Policy and/or procedure review

v. Food Preparation Techniques

vi. Therapeutic Diet

3.) Business Plan for Special Event

a. I will be correlating an event plan such as a special catering or cafeteria event, new business venture or new service for the Nutrition Services Department during their management rotation.

b. I will be working with Robert Weaver who is the Director of Board Operations. He oversees new building events or plans.

i. For this one I decided on a tabling event during Nutrition Month that will display 3 different vegetables to students. At this table I will be providing nutritional information about each vegetable as well as recipes that can be prepared in the residence halls. Also, I will be handing out samples of these recipes as well as showing a correct serving size of each product. This will help the students to understand visually what a serving size is and aid them in portion control. During this event we will have a sheet of questions and the first 20 students who get all the questions right will receive a University of Oklahoma keychain! Once I displayed this idea and details to Robert, he approved it and loved it!

As the week progressed I was introduced to Kevin Barker who is the Director of Business Operations for Housing Food Services. He works alongside the dining halls to make sure everything is going smoothly. Also, he performs assessments at these dining halls which are health inspections. I walked alongside him as he was conducting an assessment so I could see an overview of what he looks for. This helps the dining services be in tip top shape as well as safe for the faculty and students. A lot of times they have “secret shoppers” to check up on the dining halls too! I thought that was interesting and it shows that this university takes their safety seriously!

They have these at almost every restaurant! It's awesome that OU wants to hear feedback from the students!

I also met the Director of Food Services, Frank Henry. When I met with Frank he would tell us all about the opportunities University of Oklahoma provide within their Food Service. He mentioned to us that they’re the only University in the nation that has unlimited Chick-Fil-A at their dining halls. I noticed that they take pride in this because this one small feature has been a deciding factor to attend this university for many students. Frank also showed us around on campus which allowed me to get a visual on how the campus is. He took me into Cate, another dining hall after hours to see the kitchen and the blue prints for the renovations that will occur within the next two months or so.

There is so much construction going on! This is for the new dorms!

As we were heading back to the office Frank, showed us the new stadium that was being built on which will have more suite additions and presidential suites. This is a big business for the Food and Housing Services because a lot of the individuals set up there order food from the Catering Services provided by the department. Also he showed me the new residence halls that are being built which will be replicating Yale and Harvard’s architecture. This was neat to hear and learn about!

Since then I have met Shawn Henry, the Director of Retail Operations. She is the individual who deals mostly with the people in the operations. She has worked here since 1982 and has had her current position for 4 years now. She oversees the central production while she has 2 managers working under her. When a situation arises between employees, she mostly deals with that. Her time is mostly consumed dealing with meditations. I immediately thought of my job as a Resident Assistant because that’s what I do all the time too!

The next individual we met, was Nancy De Graff who is the Director of Customer Relations. She deals a lot with everything, but majority of the time it’s with the housing meals and coordinating the database for it. She worked for an operated and owned University of Oklahoma restaurant before she had her current position. Nancy helped us understand the point system and the housing meals that students/faculty can choose from. As I was viewing their options, I noticed that they had A LOT of them! I was surprised since my college choices are limited. A student has the option to choose between just getting meals, meals and points, or just points. The point system is where 1 point= 1$. And a meal is equivalent to 8$. She also set up our points on our ID’s so we had the chance to eat at the many restaurants that Food Services Department has to offer!

This is the OU Guide for restaurants that OU owns! They have such a wide variety to choose from! Sadly a lot of these places are closed during the summer. Makes me want to become a student here!

This past week I have been working with the Registered Dietitian, Fran Sharp. I had all kinds of projects to do with her. She has set me up to do 3 posters for marketing discussing the topic of hydration and academic performance. Now these posters will be given to the marketing team so they can also brainstorm ideas. After that I did an in-service for her discussing how nutrition is correlated with staff at the dining halls such as a server placing the correct portion sized spoons with the proper product. It was a fun experience and during the evaluation we learned about the lack of nutritional knowledge these individuals had.

The other intern (Erin) and I decided to go see Zootopia which was offered free for students at the Union! Next one we plan on seeing is Batman vs. Superman!