Angela Lupo was a senior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington majoring in Public Health with a concentration of Global Health when she served as a Region IV PHTC Pathways to Practice Scholar in the summer of 2021. In her field placement, Angela worked with the Center for Healthy Communities, also in Wilmington. Here is Angela’s reflection on her experience in her own words:
Center for Healthy Communities captured my interest because of their goals and mission. Because this agency works with the communities, I was exposed to their projects that focused on helping the needs of the communities. I also had a great experience working with this agency’s community partners because they helped me broaden my knowledge and skills especially when communicating with them and with other people. This agency did not disappoint me because by working with them, I gained confidence talking to other people and not hesitant to speak up even though English is not my first language.
During my internship, I learned to developed, implemented, and evaluated a nutrition education program that focused on healthy eating with hydration and the integration of diabetes. I also learned to conduct online research to locate and learn about nutrition programs from different agencies within New Hanover County and the Northside Health & Wellbeing Improvement Team’s partnering agencies. As a future health educator, I valued all the experiences that I had from working with this agency especially when educating the communities and promoting their health. In addition, by working with the Center for Healthy Communities, made me realized all the skills that I need to improve in order for me to be successful when I work at the real world. I believe that all the things that I learned from Center for Healthy Communities will be very helpful to me when I entered the public health world after I graduate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.