Seven senior dietetics majors offered first-round internships

Many of Bluffton’s seniors are taking the next step toward life after graduation by filling out job applications or making decisions on graduate schools. For senior food and nutrition majors, however, most can can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they’ve been accepted into a post-graduation internship.

On April 7, seven of Bluffton’s food and nutrition seniors learned they were granted a spot in one of the approximately 280 dietetic internships offered across the United States. These internships are part of the requirements to become a registered and licensed dietitian. They consist of over 900 hours of supervised practice within a community setting.

Within this year’s senior food and nutrition students, internship placements were offered from universities across the United States including Southeast Missouri State University, Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, Lamar University in Texas, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Illinois, Ohio University, Ball State University in Indiana and Bowling Green (Ohio) State University.

To be placed in a dietetic internship, students in the nutrition and dietetics program had to complete an application on the Dietetic Internship Centralized Application Services, known commonly as DICAS. Students uploaded their resumes, transcripts, personal statements and letters of recommendation for the programs they wished to apply to through the DICAS portal.

Allison Stoepfel was placed in the OSF Saint Francis Medical Center Dietetic Internship in Peoria, Ill., and she explained how internship placements go well beyond the components of the application.

“Getting a placement is hugely dependent on the ‘whole you’ that internship selection committees see,” said Stoepfel. “It was also a bit of a task to figure out how to make yourself stand out when there are so many qualified applicants. So, a good GPA, relevant work experience, long-term work experience, leadership experience and great letters of recommendation all go into getting an internship.”

Kelsey Reeder, who received an offer from Bowling Green State University, explained that while the DICAS were a stressful and intimidating process, looking back it wasn’t as terrible as she thought it would be.

Madeleine Elwell echoed this same sentiment as she explained the difficulties between balancing her responsibilities as a full-time student while she was completing these lengthy applications. Elwell said she was relieved to find out she had been matched to the Southeast Missouri State University Dietetic Internship.

“Following the results, I felt a mixture of relief, since I know where I’ll be for the next year, as well as excitement and thankfulness for the opportunity to participate in this program,” said Elwell.

These seven seniors received an offer from their top choice of programs during the first round of DICAS placements, but not all Bluffton students who applied received the same news.

Jennie Matteson, who was placed at Ohio University for her post-graduate internship, shared just how competitive the process is.

“Out of all the students who applied, only 48 percent of them will get matched during the first round across the country,” said Matteson. “I do feel really bad for my colleagues who didn’t get in first rounds, because now they have to apply to second rounds.”

Though not all of the Bluffton seniors who applied were matched in the first round, they are still able to apply for other internships in hopes of getting a match during the second round of DICAS placements.

“The system is confusing, and just because someone didn’t match first round, doesn’t mean they weren’t a great candidate,” said Elwell.

This support from within the group of 18 food and nutrition seniors was seen throughout the whole process of completing their DICAS.

Alexa Lammers, who will complete her placement at Ball State University, said it was a relief to have her peers going through the same process around.  

“We have 18 girls in our class, and normally we would have between 10 and 12 students,” said Lammers. “We had a huge class. I don’t think it’s been stressful having other seniors filling out DICAS—if anything, it’s been more comforting that others have been going through it, too.”

These seniors also found support from the nutrition and dietetics faculty on campus.

“Deb Myers, Jeanna Haggard and Jen Little, who is the director of our internship here at Bluffton, are amazing,” said Jessie Gibson, who will spend her internship at Stephen F. Austin State University. “They spend countless hours outside of class, tutoring, having meetings to help students with anything, as well as lining up and carrying out special projects that we get to talk about on our application.”

Gibson credited experiences like the medical nutrition therapy course, regular visits to local hospitals and special events like the Harvest Dinner for helping Bluffton students stand out in their applications.

“All of my experiences here at Bluffton through the dietetic program helped prepare me for the next step to come,” said Reeder.

“I give [Haggard and Myers] all the credit in the world for making our program such a successful one,” said Gibson.