CROET faculty accepted 12 interns into the Center’s 2013 summer intern class.  This year over 150 college undergraduates (who are going to school in Oregon or whose family resides in Oregon) applied to the program. Each intern carries out a basic or applied science research project under the direction of the faculty member who selected them, and they report the research project in a poster presentation in mid-August. The 2013 poster session was held yesterday (August 14) at OHSU’s BICC Gallery, pictured right. CROET faculty and staff attend and view all the poster presentations.  Interns usually begin with their ‘elevator speech’ on the purpose, methods, results and conclusions from the research, and faculty and query the interns on their research just as they would at a major scientific conference which is how the poster session is designed.

Judges are among the viewing audience and select the three top posters in applied and basic science. Judge Charles Allen (CROET Faculty member) is learning about Laura Jeddeloh’s poster in the picture to the left. Laura compared the learning of wellness training in 18-19 year-old food service workers to parks and recreation workers in the same age range. The training was drawn from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ‘Talking Safety’ program.  This was judged the best applied science poster of 2013 and it was one of 5 intern projects co-sponsored by the Oregon Healthy WorkForce Center and supporting the Center’s NIOSH-funded projects.

Below is the picture of the 12 interns in CROET’s 2013 summer intern class.  Pictures of all the interns and their faculty mentors will be presented next week in this blog.  Applications for the 2014 class will open in January.