Hello OU Housing and Food!

Perhaps you have seen my face around the last 5 weeks, but I would like to introduce myself.

My name is Lindsay Scott and I am so excited for the opportunity to spend my management rotation with OU Housing and Food. The management rotation is a 9 week experience that is part of an 8 month long dietetic internship with the OU Health Sciences Center.  This rotation is my last and I am happy to say that I will graduate from the program in February. Upon completion of the internship, I am qualified to sit the exam to become a Registered Dietitian!

I have been at OU Housing and Food for 5 weeks and have met nothing but smiling, friendly faces.  I have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of campus events, including the Local Harvest Fair and Allergy Awareness Month.  I have been surprised to learn about all of the resources Housing and Food makes available to the students-it is truly unique.  I have spent time on several college campuses and none have shown the same degree of student out-reach and involvement.

During my time here, I will have the opportunity to meet with managers and administrative staff to gain insight into organizational management, menu planning, budgeting, purchasing, staffing, the list goes on!

Additionally, I have a variety of projects to complete.  In October, I completed my business plan by planning, organizing, and executing a nutrition education and food demo for students at OU Traditions West.  Please try the recipe that I showcased!  I love it because it is incredibly easy, makes a ton, and freezes well.  Especially appropriate as the weather gets colder, thaw out some soup for a quick meal on a busy night.

Be on the lookout for my next post,

Boomer Sooner!

Lindsay

Goodbye

Well, my time at OU Housing and Food Services has come to a close. I must admit, I am a little sad. The projects were challenging and fun (the health fair was my favorite). But, the people here are fantastic! I will truly miss all those with whom I had the privilege of getting to know and work with. Thank you all for allowing me to complete my internship rotation here.

If I could name three things that I learned from this rotation, they would be:

1. Employees are important -without them, a business cannot be successful. No matter where I go in this world, I hope to always treat my employees with respect and dignity. 

2. Time management skills are vital to managing. Without organization, events can easily fall through and workers very quickly become frustrated. 

3. Communication skills are vital to any job. An employee should never be afraid to ask questions or confront a problem. 

I could list so much more. I will carry with me the skills I learned from the employees at OU Housing and Food Services forever. 

Seven Week Update

     How time flies -seven weeks down, and only nine days to go! So much has happened since the last post, so where do I begin?

I have met some very amazing people on the staff of the OU Housing and Food Services Department. Thus far, I have had the opportunity to observe/ work at The Flying Cow Café, Crossroads, Laughing Tomato, Concessions, and Couch Cafeteria. Each of these facilities offers special features to their consumers, and each of these managers have a unique way of running their business. Management styles differ greatly across campus, and I have observed several styles which I hope to incorporate into my career someday.

In addition to working at these food facilities, I have also had several opportunities to work with and get to know other staff members. For example, working the Presidential Dinner allowed me the opportunity to meet and work with several employees that I had not had the privilege of meeting before. Another such opportunity was Chef’s Feast. This event took place at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in Oklahoma City and was created as a fund raiser for hungry children. The OU Housing and Food Service booth theme was Dr. Who. I helped Ms. Flowers prepare for this event, and I also worked the event, which allowed me to meet Chef Billy, Chef Grant, Claire Rodrigues, and Billi Ellis. Each of these individuals has helped me over the past few weeks as I have prepared for and conducted my various projects. One more event in which I had the opportunity to work with others was the Social Responsibility Fair. I enjoyed meeting a few people from the both the Housing Department and the Catering Department. By working with others to ensure the success of an event, friendships automatically form. I am glad I had the opportunity to form these friendships.

 I began this rotation with ten projects to complete. Slowly but surely, these assignments are coming to a close. I was very fortunate to be able to choose interesting topics for my projects and therefore be able to enjoy each of them to some degree. One of my favorite projects was the sanitation inspection. I completed this assignment with the assistance of Kevin Barker. It was very nice to be able to put my ServSafe certification and microbiology/sanitation knowledge to work during this project. I also learned a lot from Mr. Barker’s experience. From this project, I was inspired to make glove usage the focus of my in-service project. Couch Cafeteria student workers were the primary audience of this presentation, and, according to my pre-and post-evaluations, my project helped these workers to become a little more knowledgeable of how they handle consumers’ food. For my performance improvement project, I chose to help one of the campus facilities to better their customer service techniques. This project has thus far required observations, research, and meetings, and hopefully by the final observation period, some changes will be seen. The biggest project I have completed during this rotation was my business plan. For this project, I planned and implemented a nutrition booth for the staff week health fair. I incorporated my recipe development project as a part of my business plan by creating a gazpacho recipe. Both of these projects were successful. Many people left the health fair with not only more nutrition knowledge but also a recipe for a delicious, salt-free, antioxidant-packed dish.

In these few days remaining, I have several more events and assignments planned. I will be putting the finishing touches on four more projects. I will also be working at CATE, Couch, and Starbucks. I look forward to packing more knowledge and experience into my portfolio in these next nine days and hopefully making a difference in the OU Housing and Food Services Department.

-Tess

Experiences Thus Far

My dietetic internship began with my community rotation, which required me to venture to a different location in the Oklahoma City area each Monday. The weeks flew by –work, projects, evaluations.  With this routine in mind, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to stay in one workplace for nine weeks during my management rotation.
I have now been the dietetic intern for OU Food Services under the supervision of Dot Flowers for a week and a half, and now, looking back, I don’t know how I stayed at my community sites for such a short time. From day one, everyone at this facility treated me with kindness. Each new staff member that Dot introduced me to greeted me with a smile, a firm handshake, and a “can’t wait to work with you.” Compared to other food service establishments in which I have worked, I became immediately amazed with employees’ attitudes. Even in the dish rooms, staff seemed to have a smile on their faces and be treating each other with respect.
Lunch time. Wow! There is simply no other word to describe The Couch cafeteria. I have always considered my alma mater’s cafeteria as excellent. Well, if that was excellent, The Couch is superb. The Couch has everything imaginable –Greek food, baked goods, Asian food, chef’s choice, frozen yogurt, salad bar, and much, much more. My standards of university cafeterias have been officially raised. What good fortune to be able to work with such a great establishment.
I am now beginning to work on my management projects. I had the opportunity of interviewing a few staff members in order to get information for the management review. This provided a great opportunity to get to know these team members on a more personable level. The business plan project is also in the mix at the moment. The OU Staff Week Health Fair will be the special event for which I will plan a healthful sampler, nutrition information pamphlets, and other nutrition education materials. This year, the theme of staff week is “Celebrating Sooner Spirit”; I am excited about incorporating this theme into nutrition education. The recipe development and the performance improvement projects are also on the to-do list. I have been collecting several ideas for each of these every time I visit one of the campus dining facilities. I am hoping to choose an issue which will improve campus food services even more for the Sooner generations to come.
Needless to say, I have thus far thoroughly enjoyed my experiences on the OU Norman campus. More experiences to come. 

-Tess