Interning at Larimer County

[Ian Cartwright]

Can't really complain about the internship. The people I work with are great and the job itself is pretty straight forward. I feel the best part of the internship is the hands on aspect. You really get to see what it is like to work at a health department, from what I hear it is were most EH majors end up for a little bit. Three weeks in I have been introduced to food inspections, child care inspections, ISDS inspections, CFC and Air quality monitoring, and vector borne disease. So far the most interesting part has been vector borne disease. It primarily deals with rabies, plague, west nile, and hantavirus. I have been asked to research the relationship between West Nile virus and weather to see if there is a way to predict outbreaks of the disease before anyone gets sick. This project is not only trying to prevent West Nile, but it is a necessity because of the fear that a mosquito borne disease such as Rift Valley fever, malaria, or yellow fever may make an appearance in the US some time in the near future. On top of this individual project, I am required to do 2-3 food inspections everyday with someone from the department. Food inspections are not as bad as you may think, they are actually quite interesting. All in all, this internship has been eye opening and worth it, I have probably learned more practical information in these last 3 weeks then I have in any of the EH classes.