Maddy Garverick watches as Sherman Elementary students color pictures of fruits and vegetables during a discussion about healthy eating. Third-graders
wrinkled their noses Thursday when Maddy Garverick distributed colorful
vegetable strips and humas dip.
Minutes
later, some of the noses unwrinkled.
“This isn’t bad,” said one of the boys in Jordan Monica’s classroom at Sherman Elementary School as he dipped a second carrot strip into humas.
Garverick, a graduate of Galion High School and Ohio University, is finishing a two-month internship with Mansfield City Schools’ food service department on her way to earning a master’s degree in nutrition and becoming a registered dietitian.
Accompanied
by MCS food service manager Lauren Moran, Garverick talked with the
third-graders about the importance of eating healthy. The kids colored pictures
of fruits and vegetables before they tasted the strips of carrots, celery, mild
peppers and, of course, the humas.
Long before
she finished high school, Garverick knew she wanted a career in some facet of
health care.
“At one point I thought maybe as a family doctor,” she said. “But my career goal developed during my first nutrition class as a freshman at Ohio University. OU’s nutrition program is hard but it prepared me. I feel really prepared.”
Not only
does she feel prepared educationally, Garverick is focused on how she
eventually wants to apply her professional skills.
“I want to work in a community setting, advocating for nutrition and promotion of wellness,” she said. “Often, when someone is in the hospital for a given illness, they receive information about healthy eating. I want to emphasize preventive care, how heathy eating can help to prevent illnesses before they happen.”
Garverick, the daughter of Mansfield Senior High teacher Margaret Garverick, is working toward her master’s degree through Marshall University in West Virginia. She is required to complete 1,200 hours of supervised experience in four internship rotations.
At Mansfield
City Schools, she will finish a rotation in K-12 school nutrition on Friday.
Earlier, she completed a rotation in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children)
clinic at the Marion County Health Department. Soon she will begin two final rotations
in separate areas of study at Bucyrus Community Hospital.
“I will be finished with my internship in June. By mid summer I would expect to sit for the board exam to begin the process to be certified as a registered dietitian,” Garverick said.
During her time
with the MCS food service department, Garverick has worked alongside Moran and
Erin Mudra, assistant manager.
“It’s been fun here and I’ve learned a lot. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes – planning, ordering, organization – things I never thought about when I was getting my lunch in high school,” Garverick said.
Moran smiled
broadly as she explained that Garverick has seen the full range of food service
responsibilities.
“Maddy has done it all,” Moran said. “She has helped in ordering, planning menus, working in serving lines. We have enjoyed having her with us.”