Jesus Lopez ’24 — First, I would like to thank Wabash College and the Wabash Liberal Arts Immersion Program (WLAIP) for funding my internship. I would also like to thank Dr. Horton and Dr. Pittard for their guidance and help through this course. The WLAIP helped prepare me for my first year of college at Wabash. Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Roy Kaplan for helping me find this internship opportunity. Without their help, I would not have been able to work closely with my old high school.
This summer, I can work alongside IDEA Public Schools in their Child Nutrition Program. IDEA stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This internship allowed me to learn how high school cafeterias operate. For example, I visited my old high school for a week to get an idea of how managers work and what they specifically do. During that first week, I learned how important it was to have every requirement fulfilled to operate. Also, I revised audits from other IDEA schools around the country. Even though I worked virtually from home, I still had a unique experience and met tremendous individuals along the way that helped make everything run smoothly.
This internship gave me a sense of responsibility and the ability to be flexible with how I went on with my day. I had multiple different projects that I have been working on that affected how high school cafeterias operate. For instance, I overlooked the budgets and prices of tools in high school cafeterias. I had to pay extra attention to the documents I handled since the cafeteria’s operations depended on it.
