We are proud to announce that an OC Community Intern has received a very exciting award. This past Friday, Mercedez Hernandez (a Pre-Med/Health Sciences major from Lubbock, Texas) was recognized as the 2014 Intern of the Year at West Texas A&M University. Mercedez’s internship was with The Garden at the High Plains Food Bank.
Mercedez (third from left) joined by her parents on the left, and her friend, grandmother, and younger sister on the right
Hernandez’s internship through the High Plains Food Bank was for a period of six weeks. During the first week , she worked in The Garden, helping to plant, weed, and harvest, gaining experience and skills for an educational program offered by the HPFB. But the major project of Mercedez’s internship was leading a nutrition education and gardening program at the Amarillo’s Maverick Boys and Girls Club (where she taught approximately 112 students five days/week).
As a recipient of this year’s award, Mercedes will receive a $750 scholarship for the Spring semester, and she will also be entered into the National Cooperative Education and Internship Association’s Academic Intern of the Year award. Hernandez was a part of a field of 25 other interns who were nominated to receive this award. This was her second Community Internship in OC’s Program (she completed an internship at Hereford Regional Medical Center in summer 2013).
You can read more about Mercedez’s reception of the award here. To follow along more closely with her internship, you can read any of her blog posts here.
