The Cal Poly DI Family … So Much More than a Single Cohort

If you read our blog regularly, have attended one of our online open houses, or have spoken to any representative of the Cal Poly Dietetic Internship, you’ve surely heard about our focus on building a strong support network among each cohort. I consider it a hallmark of our program that our interns really care about creating a positive shared experience in the internship in their DI year – and beyond! If you want to read more about my perspective on this, check out this post.

But one thing I don’t talk about enough is the role of alums in our DI Family. Once you become a part of this program, you’re immediately welcomed into a warm, generous, and compassionate extended family of DI graduates! There are countless ways our alums “pay it forward” to incoming interns (or even prospective applicants to the program), but in this week’s post I thought I’d share a small handful.

Contributing to Our Classes – Each year, several local graduates come back to Cal Poly to play diverse characters to be counseled by our current interns in a counseling practical class session. They challenge the interns during the sessions, and then provide valuable feedback about interns’ strengths and opportunities for continued growth.

Attending DI Events – To give you one example, last year we opened up our interns’ formal nutrition research presentations to the local community, and we had an impressive number of alums show up to support the new cohort. I’m sure they remembered completing that same assignment themselves!

Offering to Discuss Challenging Rotations – Most interns hit a tough spot now and then during this very intense and busy year. Talking with peers or with me can absolutely help, but sometimes it’s nice to hear from someone who made it to the other side of the program not too long ago. Our graduates are willing to connect with interns to share their own struggles as well as the success strategies that helped them navigate challenges. They help boost our current interns’ confidence and offer new tools to help interns get over any hurdle.

Hosting Interns at their Home – OK, this may be a special case, but one of our graduates lives near one of our more far-flung rotation sites, and she has welcomed current interns to stay with her during their (2-week) rotation there. One intern recently took her up on the offer and she got to enjoy an evening gathering with her host and another alum from that cohort during her stay.

Sharing their Stories – Explore our blog and you’ll see several posts from alums sharing their first-year-out-of-the-internship experiences. This is a great way for current (and future) interns to begin looking ahead to what comes after they pass the exam and add those new initials after their names!

Shaping the Future of our Program – I’m so grateful to have the perspective of multiple program alums who serve on our DI Advisory Council, even from afar (we conduct our meetings virtually). Beyond this, I have the great pleasure of connecting with graduates informally to discuss what’s going on with the program and the direction it’s headed. Their insight is so valuable, and it often leads me down a path I might never have found on my own. In fact, during a recent meet-up with several of our graduates, one alum came up with an idea that will bring past and current interns together more than ever before – and I believe will make the 2020-2021 program cohort our most supported yet!

Precepting – So many of the Cal Poly DI alums who stayed local have served as preceptors – they’ve worked with interns in Clinical, Community, Food Service Management, and Elective rotations, so if you come here, you’re bound to encounter quite a few!

Connecting with Prospective Applicants – Even before you match to our program, you can benefit from the openness of our alums. Cal Poly graduates represent our program at various DI forums and recruitment events, including the national Internship Fair at FNCE as well as events hosted by DPD programs. They also are always more than willing to field questions from prospective applicants – I’m constantly giving out email addresses of our alums who can speak to a particular DI experience (with permission, of course). And to give you an idea of how deep this commitment goes, over the winter break that just wrapped up, a student interested in our program was visiting SLO and hoping to learn more about the program. Due to the timing, I was unavailable to meet with her … but I reached out to one of our grads and she came to the rescue, meeting with the student and answering her questions.

I couldn’t be prouder to be a member of this amazingly kind and giving family! Thanks to all the Cal Poly DI alums for making this program so much better than it could ever be without you!