Dietetic Internship Workshop Notes

Speaker 1 - Mariko Hingston - SFSU Career Counselor
E-mail: mtodd@sfsu.edu 
Office: Student Services Building Room 206

- When making an appointment give three date and time options, tell her purpose of review
- quick questions every mon and tue 10-11

Resume:
- lead off bullet points lead with adverbial phrases
- don't use italics in case of scannable resume with key word search
- 12 pt font
- get job description, print, and highlight SKILLS
- make sure those skills are represented on resume
- relevant: career objective, simple job title (sets clear standard about what you want)
-anything below job title, assess what is RELEVANT to what applies to that particular job
- under education put relevant class projects: title of one class project SFSU, Fall (etc
- lead off with adverbial phrases, especially group projects.  Relevant to what internship/hospital applying to
- next header, put work (NOT employment) experience
- go as far back as what is relevant
- if not stated GPA requirement, don't put it
- in work world, put what experience is relevant so put class projects and make resume stand out
- can still put honors and awards under education, don't over-do it, but definitely put the ones that are appropriate
- show competencies
- put relevant skill set
- activities and associations if there is room, especially if you are an active member
*always add a cover letter (similar to personal statement), cover letters write in a more personal way what you have to offer

Personal statement:
- more details about experiences, drives, personality, how they communicate, what makes them different, what's relevant to the program, short and long term goals, know the program you are applying for: requirements, what they are looking for
- write personal statement with a theme and identify a sub theme, be consistent and supply evidence to support the theme, through class projects, volunteer work, etc.  Be passionate, committed, enthusiastic, and goals.
- Where can you set yourself apart: 1st paragraph, what got you into the field.  Lead off with where your interest in dietetics began
- why am I passionate, where are motivations. what got me into dietetics, what did I do about it, what will DI think about where I fit into their program
- find out how the DI wants your statement to be organized
- try to keep in chronological order
- give to someone who knows you well and someone who doesn't know you at all
 - Biggest mistake: overkill, too much info.  Edit for content.  Don't want reader to lose focus

Speaker 2 - Sarah Josef - SFSU DPD Director

DICAS:
- closed until 2nd week of December
- watch video on AND website and read documents listed
- Sarah will be getting list of internships, GPA, how many were accepted and she will post
- set aside 1/2 hour or hour a week to get organized and fill out info
- with DICAS closed, use form on DPD to get info together, then copy and paste into DICAS later
- GPA calculations
- overall- matters, but not as much as DPD and Science 
- DPD is what really matters
- different on DICAS than our schedule: Prerequisites and foundational together
- science are different, keep out sciences that aren't necessary, only DPD
- report foundation and science separately (I think, need more)
- Transfer transcripts from Community College
- DICAS reports all A's as 4.0 (use calculator on DPD, also on SFSU home page)
- report classes currently taking as IP

Regarding Transcripts:
- needs to be sent from college
- WATCH VIDEO ON AND WEBSITE
- follow process and procedure
- don't wait till the last minute, go now and say as soon as the fall grades have been 
- need to be sent from ALL colleges, send ones you are done with NOW
- can check on DICAS to see if they have been received

Regarding Reference Letters:
- enter into DICAS and they will send the person a form to fill out
- make sure you ask the person first
- you may upload 4 references, but 3 from each application site
- get a community oriented letter, and a clinical oriented letter
- 1 from employer or volunteer supervisor
- 2 from faculty (need to be in the field)
- make sure they know you really well and can be specific to your strengths and weaknesses
- most important factor: you want them to know you and can write you a good letter
- ask them: do you think you can write me a good letter, are you able, do you need more information
- have one letter than is clinically based, hard in our school b/c we don't have too many clinical instructors
- often need to educate the employer about what it is that is so crucial that they evaluate them on
- references have to be relevant

Regarding ACEND form:
- waiver statement
- VERY IMPORTANT: recommended to waive the right to view letters: you want reference person to write honestly and you are saying that you trust that person will write a good letter
- all boxes need to be completed
- Educate your references on specific things applicable to the form: what you have done and what you have done really well

Requesting Reference Letters:
- make the request personally
- request deadline is Friday Dec. 13th before the semester ends
- ***Documents required: MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE EVERYTHING, form on DPD website
- ask what they need
***Make list of strengths and weaknesses***
- not everyone needs to see your personal statement, ask if they want to see it
- know what programs and emphasis you are applying to 

Verification form:
- DPD director does it at graduation application check
- declaration of intent to complete
- get final official transcript 
- don't worry about it, Sarah will remind us

Third Speaker - Wanda Siu-Chan - SFSU Dietetic Internship Director

Think about:
- what will work best for you
- Do you want grad degree
- Think about concentration
- Distance is good option if you have a connection
- LOOK AT APPLICANT GUIDE AND ONLY APPLY TO WHAT YOU THINK YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO GET INTO
- make sure you look to see what each internship wants (different deadlines, etc)

Steps:
1.  spring match for fall Feb 15th on D&D
2. DICAS, check deadlines
3. Submit separate packets to each internship you apply for

Timeline:
- March 31 2014 is last day to change rankings- if interview didn't go well, or it went great
- D&D digital is CENTRAL TIME!!!  MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TIME
- Notification time is Sunday, April 6th 2014 at 6PM
- If matched, you MUST contact the program by tues April 8th 5PM (time zone)
- you can release your name and get contacted by internships for programs that don't fill up

Required qualifications FOR SFSU:
- supplemental package due Feb 15th with application fee (don't need DPD list for SFSU if you attend SFSU)
- Wanda looks 1st at DPD GPA and volunteer and work experience
- clinical experience is important (she likes min of 200-250 hours), 
- she looks at other dietetic experience: community, food service, counseling, customer service, mgmt, shows responsibility, working w/ people
- next: life experiences, taking on responsibility, showing flexibility, non-dietetics experience
- letter of recommendation: written by someone who seems to know you
- if you don't get a phone interview, not really a good sign

SFSU Internship Program:
- start mid to late August
- classes on Mondays
- rotations Tues-Friday
- 12 grad units of coursework can apply to MA degree at SFSU

Thank you to Tiffany Torok for providing these notes!