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Amelia Glaser

KINS 4306

November 27, 2023

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Introduction:

Hello my name is Amelia Glaser and I had the occasion of being an assistant activities

director intern for the Fellowship Home at Meriwether in Milledgeville Georgia. The Fellowship

Home was founded in 1977 by George and Gonza LaHood a registered nurse. (Fellowship

Home, 2023). The Fellowship Home has been owned and operated since 1978.The original

location, Fellowship Home at Brookside in 1977 was on a piece of the LaHood’s’ 400+ acre

family farm. The Fellowship Home is an assisted living community combining Southern

hospitality and contemporary style. Great pride is taken in serving the resident as an extension of

the Fellowship’s family. Their purpose is: “We aspire to create senior living environments where

people experience the gift of being seen, known, and heard; where people are inspired to live

their best life, do their best work, and invest their resources for the best returns.” (Fellowship

Home, 2023). Their mission is: “We exist to serve our seniors like we would want our own

family to be served.” (Fellowship Home, 2023). The Fellowship Home is a short distance from

Lake Sinclair, shopping, and medical facilities. (Fellowship Home, 2023). I collaborated with

staff members which consisted of the two activities directors, Associate Administrative Assistant,

the LPN Administrator, RN Nurse, CNAs, and Medical Technicians.

The Fellowship Home at Meriwether was founded in 2018 and includes walking paths,

front porch, dining rooms, a salon, a library, theater room, and housekeeping. There is also

transportation for weekly shopping trips, eating out, banking, and other outdoor activities. There

are also devotionals, worship services, and fitness and wellness programs designed to strengthen

the body and mind. The Fellowship Homes clients served include the elderly ranging in ages

from 61 years-101 years. The clients also include residents who are in either the assisted living

side or memory care.

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Description of Experience:

My role as intern included me assisting the front desk personnel, leading activities, and

implementing new activities. The most fun part of my internship included leading Happy Hour

since the residents had the opportunity to interact with each other, use their brain in order to

come up with words, and laugh. I also found leading exercise to be fun since I applied what I

learned in personal health and fitness. The residents who exercised seemed to be calmer and in

better moods. Being with the residents and being able to assist them was rewarding. I found the

opportunity to create a survey and interview the residents willing to participate to be exciting. I

also found the creation of my survey to be motivating. An aspect I found to be the most difficult

and challenging included keeping my patience since sometimes the resident’s listening skills

were not great and sometimes the resident’s fixated on issues. The resident’s fixating on issues

made my job tricky. I wish I did more public health education concerning nutrition and health

issues. I made infographics for Breast Cancer and Alzheimer’s but the residents never had the

chance to be informed of this. I would have liked to have done trivia for these different health

issues. If I had created a trivia, the residents would have had the opportunity to learn about

current health issues affecting their age group. I wish I did less desk work since this was boring.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship:

My internship did and did not meet my personal expectations. My expectations were met

since I was able to create a survey for future activity implementations. My personal expectation

of me being happy, having fun, and wanting to go to my internship was met.

My expectations were not met since I did not get to educate the resident’s families on

Cardiovascular disease. My expectations were also not met since all though I did everything
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there was available for me to do, I still felt underutilized. There was not as much of a challenge

as I would have liked. I would have liked to use more of my Public health skills and critical

thinking skills. The organization was open to my ideas and contributions. My supervisor was

excited about the creation of my survey and she checked in with me on the status of my survey

and my presentation. My supervisor even offered me a getting to know you sheet that is used in

memory care that I could use as a guidance. Supervision from my internship site supervisor was

very effective since I could ask her questions as needed and I was not micromanaged. I

completed my designated tasks which received high approval. My supervisor only once gave me

a polite criticism when I needed to be put in place. My experience could have been improved if

there were more projects for me to complete and more tasks for me to accomplish. The survey

was a wonderful opportunity but went quicker than I expected it to go. I would recommend the

setting to future interns as for my supervisor was excellent and the residents were a pleasure to

work with. I recommend this to someone who is very empathetic and patient. I would not

recommend this to someone who prefers to work alone or with research. If someone prefers to

always be moving during the whole day, then this internship will be unsatisfactory to them. I

would consider a career in this setting since I feel comfortable in this setting and I was able to

use my personality to benefit others. I would prefer to do more health education in this setting

and take more off-site excursions. I would also not consider a career in this setting since after a

year, I would be tired of doing the same activities every day. I prefer a variety of tasks and a

variety of people as for I would want to be around children some days. I would rather be outside

than being stuck inside an office and/or a building all day.

Internship Preparedness:
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I was prepared very well academically for my placement at my internship site since my

undergraduate classes provided a foundation. Some areas I felt most prepared and confident in

where group communication and public speaking. I felt prepared in this area since I took Small

Group Communication as an elective and I was able to apply and practice the theories learned in

this course. I understood the different modes of communication and how personality affected

interactions. I used public speaking skills when I made the announcements for activities and

when leading Bingo. I also felt prepared because I had taken a couple of psychology classes and

a personal health and fitness course. I also took Intro to Growth and Human Development

Psychology and a unit that was covered was the early elderly life span and late elderly life span. I

learned about the challenges for these age groups concerning mental health and diseases. This

age group can feel either lonely and discontent with their life or satisfied with their life. I learned

how to approach the elderly that are discontent with their life. I talked to the lonely in a positive

manner and I told them they are loved and valued and have had a great life. I also have to have a

lot of compassion since some of the elderly are short tempered. I have dealt with a resident who

has family issues stressing her out and allowing her to speak allows her to take away her

burdens. I applied the skills I learned from the different stages of grief and death and dying. My

Personal health and fitness courses concepts were utilized since I helped the residents strengthen

their lower and upper body to have better mobility. In terms of where I felt most confident and

prepared, I was knowledgeable on survey creation because I took Research Methods and

Statistics in the Spring, thus the concept was still fresh in my mind. The only area I felt the least

prepared was in technology specifically in creating a website since I have not had experience

with creating a website.

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Georgia College and State University does a well job of preparing students for the real-

life application of public health concepts and future employment. GCSU/School of Health and

Human Performance can better prepare Public Health Students for real life application of public

health concepts and future employment through providing more opportunities to observe and

shadow different Public Health Professionals. The opportunities to observe and shadow different

fields would allow students to have a clearer and more expansive idea of areas in which they

could specialize in along with the expectations of the shadowed careers. Although I did 30 hours

of community service prior to my internship, I still feel like this could be improved upon. A class

period dedicated to visiting a public health professional or a public health professional coming in

would have been informative. I enjoy guest lecturers and I wish other professors besides Dr.

Butler, Dr. Francis and Dr. K had incorporated in more guest lecturers. I wish I had started my

resume my Freshman year. Introducing a resume in Introduction to Public Health could benefit

incoming freshman since by Senior year, they will comfortable and better prepared in creating a

resume. I wish there had been more opportunities and time spent to doing mock interviews. If I

had done this my Freshman year, I would have had an idea of areas I could have improved upon.

Internship Performance:

As a part of my internship, I acquired knowledge and new skills that are going to add

value in my future career endeavors. For instance, I had the opportunity to gain a deeper

understanding of dementia. I now know an abundance and significant number of details

concerning how Dementia affects an individual’s daily life. I am now aware of the symptoms

specifically the different stages, and the current treatments available that are Food and Drug

Administration approved.
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As my internship is close to being over, I am satisfied with my performance. I worked

hard on creating the survey and asking the resident’s input was an opportunity for me to work on

my public speaking skills. I learned the importance of speaking clearly and loud enough to be

heard. I was able to increase resident participation in activities and in turn, my site was able to

notice a change in the resident’s mental health and levels of loneliness. I made deadlines for

myself since my supervisor allowed me to have the freedom to. This opportunity benefitted me

since I was able to successfully fall through with my deadlines. My time manage was efficient

since I was completing my internship course work ahead of time. I started my presentation ahead

of time. I am very proud of my survey and the Excel spreadsheet since I started the survey very

early on in September and a lot of time was spent in ensuring that these were organized in the

best manner possible for the team at the Fellowship home and for future interns. My supervisors

and the activities directors positive feedback were indicators of my work being good quality.

In order to be as successful as possible after graduation, there are skills I need to develop,

hone, and sharpen and those skills include technology and confidently presenting in front of large

groups of people. I will like to be come more familiar with Excel and be able to use the different

formulas and graphing settings on Excell. I am comfortable with talking with people one on one

but talking in front of a large group of people can be intimidating. If I slowly work my way to

talking in large groups, my confidence will increase. At my future career, I plan on taking a

position in which I can help lead.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits:

My internship definitely impacted my personal and professional goals along with my

academic goals. One of my main goals is to make an impact on the resident’s mental health and
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my activity implementation was a humungous part of making my main goals happen. With more

time providing more opportunities in educational awareness, I will be able to progress closer to

reaching the forementioned goal, along with my other goal of improving the health of the elderly

population. One day, I aspire for a position at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This internship is a stepping stone towards my future employment at the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

I also experienced this internships impact on my personal growth since opportunities

were given for me to interact with the residents and in which I gained full confidence in my

communication skills and my abilities. At first, I was nervous talking to the residents and their

perceptions of me but over time, I came to realize that the resident’s appreciated me taking time

out of my day to listen to them. My internship was an extremely valuable experience in every

aspect. I am thankful for the opportunity to have interned at such a welcoming organization with

a great team who constantly motivated each other and communicated effectively.

On of the most meaningful aspects of my internship was working with the residents. I

was able to gain an insight into the services provided for seniors along with how Dementia

affects them and that there are options to help mitigate Dementia. I also realized that there needs

to be more services available for seniors. I was able to realize that even though some of the

resident’s appeared happy on the outside, they could also feel lonely and/or unsatisfied on the

inside. I had not considered this before, since I thought that the elderly would be happier and/or

have less problems. I also observed that people can be dealing with the unimaginable without me

knowing. These residents were some of the most gracious people I have met and their

graciousness encouraged and inspired me to be more gracious. I hope for the best for the rest of
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the residents’ lives and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to educate and interact with the

residents.
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Sources:

Fellowship Home. (n.d.). Amenities you are going to love.

https://thefellowshipfamily.com/fellowship-home-meriwether

Fellowship Home. (n.d.). Our Company History. https://thefellowshipfamily.com/about-us.