The Lion's Den

Hey Everyone,

My name is Sinan and I attend Rutgers University in New Jersey with a focus in nutrition, food, and business as well as environmental and business economics and I am currently an intern at Penn State University, home of the Nittany Lions. I want to start off by talking about how welcoming everyone here on campus and in town is and due to the tremendous hospitality, I feel like I am at a home away from home. Moving on to the workload, the internship program thus far has been very hands-on and within just 4 days, has taught me very valuable lessons within campus dining services.

As I post more about my experiences as well as the experiences of my fellow interns, I will try and log as many pictures as possible to give y’all a better understanding of how colorful things are at State College. I hope to see pictures from other host schools and interns as well. 

Starting my journey on a good note, I hit absolutely no traffic on my road trip to State College and was able to enjoy the agricultural scenery and surrounding changes as I crossed the NJ/PA state border.

When I arrived on campus, I was greeted with this lovely and easy to understand campus map.  Fortunately, coming from an enormous campus like Rutgers New Brunswick, I was able to break the map down into regions and figure out where I was going.

The comfort of home set in as I stepped into my room. It was a corner room suite with sunlight pouring in. Towels were all clean and ready and the brand new sheets were folded under the towels, ready to be slept on.

If that wasn't enough, PSU was kind enough to fill our fridges and a goody bag of treats to last us days. We were also given an assortment of tees and polos as well as name tags for our shifts.

Once settled in and unpacked, I cracked open a cold water, grabbed my Kashi bars and organic banana chips from my goody bag and enjoyed the view of State College out of my window until the other interns' flights arrived.

The icing on the cake was spread the second I found Crossfit LionHeart on campus. Thank to friendly staff and members, I received permission to train on premises for as long as my internship lasted. This is what put me on track.  As addicted to fitness as I may sound saying this, there is nothing in this world that puts my head and body at rest after a long day except for a good workout and a post-workout feast.

Finally came the feast! Trying to follow a paleo eating habit away from home,  I had no trouble gathering a tray full of healthy and extremely delicious meals almost every 3 hours of the day. I've yet to have one bit of complaint about the food here and I think I can honestly say I am in love with the food their dining services offer.