5 weeks and I will graduate with my Bachelor’s of Science with an emphasis in Dietetics. It’s not too early to start a countdown, believe me. This means that it’s cram time. Time for teacher’s to pack in all the material that is left to prepare us for our years to come.
Sunday night was internship matching and my fellow dietetic pals were told if they matched with an internship. This is probably one of the most stressful days, besides the actual application process, of the journey to become a dietitian. An internship is necessary to take the Registered Dietitian exam to become an RD. It isn’t as simple as calling someone up and finding an internship. Instead, a computer takes school’s choices and the applicant’s school choice and either matches one or none. Only 50% of those in the US that apply match with an internship.
Luckily for me, I was able to forego this entire situation, as I’m going to complete my master’s degree first. Don’t worry, I still stressed about the internship application process. If you know me, I’m the planner and want to plan out my life in advance. So when I found out we needed an internship, I started working on my application and resume starting my sophomore year of college and even had my choice picks of where to go and what I needed to do to apply, as well as networking with those who attended the internships and those in charge of them.
It just so happened there was another path for me to venture down and it is more beneficial towards the field of dietetics I want to practice. I was offered a graduate assistant position at the University of Missouri- Columbia to work under the Head of Sports Nutrition. Not only will I get to work in the field of dietetics I dream about; sports nutrition, but I will also get my Masters of Education: Health Education and Promotion. I was so blessed that I didn’t even need to think about this opportunity. All I needed to think about was the “what happens after that?” There it is again, my life planning. I’ve left it vague, in the fact that so much could happen with this opportunity and the ever changing world of nutrition and dietetics, that I know I will complete an internship and obtain my RD someday, but it can wait. Especially after hearing about the future changes that in order to take the RD exam, prospective dietitians will need to have their master’s degree. What a coincidence, because I will have my master’s degree which puts me right back in the playing field and not disadvantaged. So once again, this all happened for a reason and this path is ideal in my future plans.
I am so overjoyed with those who matched for internships and am positive that those who didn’t, will match second round or much like me, end up with other paths to take that will benefit them in more ways than they might think. So let us take in our last 5 weeks of school and open arms to the new adventures that are ahead of us in the upcoming years!
