The Grand Finale

It's hard to believe that this is my last blog post for the summer! Our time has flown by, but especially our time shadowing managers at the dining halls. Our management experience was three weeks long, but it felt like a blink of the eye.
This past weekend was a big one for State College, PA. Each year they have a huge arts festival, and thousands of people come to town. Everywhere suddenly becomes more crowded and lively. The art is pretty impressive, and not limited to the vendor's tents.

Street art, recreating famous paintings 

Glass flowers - only $2,000! 

Penn State's Old Main at Sunset

The crew! Plus our friend, Lisa, who lives in our dorm
Left to right- Ali, Me, Sinan, Betty (Lisa top left) 

This has been an incredible summer. I can honestly say I am a different person from who I was a few months ago (in a good way!). I hope you've enjoyed perusing my photos and hearing about my experiences as a NACUFS intern.

Arts Festivus for the Rest of Us

There is less than one week left of my internship and I can hardly believe it is almost over. This past Thursday was the last day of our management experience and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I learned a lot about different management styles from watching the assistant managers that I'm sure I will use in my future career. This week has been a big one for State College because they are hosting their annual arts festival which features several artists from all over the United States. Over 250,000 people come for arts fest each year and all the hotels within an hour of State College fill up.  

 The pictures below are created out of chalk.

This piece was created by a college student.

 

In addition to working as an assistant manager at Pollock dining commons, the other interns and myself have been busy working on our farewell luncheon that is being held this Wednesday. We got to use our knowledge of FoodPro to create the recipes and order the food. We start prepping for the big day on Tuesday and I will be sure to post pictures and let you all know how it goes! 

-Ali Wilmes

Our Final Week as a Nittany Lion

So we are just rounding out our last weekend here at Penn State and I have to say, as long as the days were at the internship, weeks flew by and I can not believe we have less than 4 days until it all comes to an end. The last few weeks have been mostly indoors, managing the Pollock Dining Commons, therefore I have no vast array of pictures but here are some images I rounded up from my last 2 weeks here.

The food at Pollock has been outstanding and has failed to put a smile on my face at breakfast, lunch time, and dinner time, no matter how long the work day. 

ButI will admit, I did go home one weekend to take my dad out to dinner. Straying away from the healthy dishes I have been eating at Penn State, I decided it was a perfect day to pig out with my old man and I took him to Chili Willie's in New Jersey, one of my favorite places thanks to their 3 pound pulled bbq chicken Cowboy Burrito.

On the drive back, the crazy Central PA weather was no surprise, right at the PA and NJ borderline.

As the weeks festivities went on, we were lucky enough to experience Arts Fest, one of the biggest Festivals in the Mid-Atlantic region. This is just one of the amazing sidewalk chalk renderings of a famous painting, displayed on the streets of College Avenue during Arts Fest.

And another...

As I walk through campus on my last weekend here, I can't help but about how much I will miss the beauty of this campus.

The NACUFS internship has been a life changing experience and will absolutely impact the way I prepare for my future and career path in food service management. I have not only met some amazing staff and managers, I have also been lucky enough to meet the other 3 interns who have made this experience a once in a lifetime stay that I will never forget. 

- Sinan Ozyemisci

The Adventures of a Penn State Intern: Week 6

We started our management experience last week.

I work in the Findlay Dining Commons and the other three interns work at Pollock Dining Common. On the first day I had to be at work at 4:30 in the morning and for the rest of the week I came in at 5:30am. I am proud to say that I was able to functional at 4:30 am, especially since I am NOT a morning person. My mentor during this management experience is Maria and she has done a great job helping me adjust to my responsibilities. Overall, the experience has been very interesting. Some of the duties I have done so far include checking temperature on the food line, doing food orders, report counts during each meal, and notifying food service worker when to open and close lines depending on how busy we are.

Back view of Findlay

Management Experience!!!

I also would like to give a special thanks to Maria and her family for having us for dinner. It was nice to have a home cooked meal from a different culture. It was so delicious. I ate so much I thought I was going to bust.

Family time!!!

On last Sunday, we worked a 1-9pm shift at the Bryce Jordan Center at the Steve Martin, Edie Brickell and The Steep Canyon Rangers concert. Some of the activities we did included setting up the green and dressing rooms and working at the concessions stand. I even got to walk passed Steve Martin not once but twice (Celebrity moment). It was a pretty cool experience seeing how run during a big event at the BJC.

Penn State University week 6

This past week marked our first week of management experience at the dining halls. I am shadowing the managers of Pollock Dining Commons along with two other interns. Our hours vary but my first few days were 12:30 p.m. – 9:30. I thought this would be great because I could sleep in, but as it turns out, the day really disappears when you sleep in and basically go back to sleep when you finish your shift. I’m now on a 5:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. shift and I am much happier!

            We had a great weekend here in State College. Our coordinator, Maria, invited us to a family dinner at her house. Her mother and husband helped prepare a feast of Filipino and Korean food. It was delicious! There were veggie eggrolls, steamed rice, Filipino grilled ribs, Korean barbeque beef, pickled cucumbers, salad and flan with fruit for dessert. The Korean Beef was my favorite but everything was amazing!

Rice, korean beef, grilled ribs/cucumbers, and the egg roll

the group, digging in! 

            Yesterday we worked a concert at the event center here and helped with catering and concessions. Steve Martin and a bluegrass band performed. We got to set up their dressing rooms with all of their requested food. It was pretty cool to see him in person casually eating a sandwich and chit chatting with the crew. Our weekend wrapped up nicely, and now we have July 4^th to look forward to! 

The Adventures of a Penn State Intern: Week 5

Wow! I cannot believe we are passed the halfway mark!

Last week itinerary included a discussion about the different components of diversity, understanding the operation of The Mix (convenience store on campus), and meeting with the registered dietitian and student nutrition assistant to discuss their job responsibilities and ideas 

My favorite part about last week was going on the field trip with Chef Bill.We went to Belleville, Pennsylvania to the Amish Market. Some of the highlights of the field trip included seeing a livestock auction, observing a different culture, eating,  and shopping without breaking my pockets.

Below are some pictures from the field trip:  

The overview of the market

Some of the animals that were being auctioned.

Where the livestock auction occurred.

The "parking lot" for the horses.

We stopped by a small restaurant for lunch. The food was delicious. This meal really made day.

                                  

   

One of my purchases at the market. 50 CENTS!!!  A bargain shopper's dream!!!

A delicious investment!

           

We also stopped by a winery. It was my first time wine tasting. I was really interesting learning about different wine and how they were classified.

 Also last Thursday, the other interns and I competed in a Culinary Challenge. Overall, I thought it was a great experience. Some unplanned events did occur while I was cooking, but I could not dwell on my mistake I had to keep it moving. (Life lesson moment). Congrats to Elise for winning the challenge!

 I made a salad with romaine lettuce and spinach with mango, walnuts, blue cheese, red onion, and shrimp.

Penn State Week 5!

This past week rounded out the training and tour portion of our internship. Tomorrow is the first day of my management experience in Pollock dining hall and I am excited to put to use all of the great training I've acquired so far. One of the highlights from this last week was getting to visit an Amish market in Belleville, Pennsylvania. I have never seen an Amish person before so it was very interesting to see how they live and to interact with them.

This is the building where we sat in on a livestock auction. 

 

I learned that only married Amish men have beards because they shave until they get hitched. 

 

 We couldn't resist sampling a couple wines at the beautiful Brookemere winery on the way to Belleville.

We had some delicious fried chicken at Peachey's for lunch.

 

 If anyone else is a fan of the YouTube video "Goats Yelling Like Humans" then you'll probably get a kick out of this video that I took at the livestock auction house. 

 

Here is the YouTube video if you haven't seen it. I highly recommend watching it. 

This past week I also got to participate it a culinary challenge against the other interns. Although I was defeated, I had a great time creating my dish and tasting what the other interns came up with. I made a shrimp, avocado and grapefruit salad with a citrus vinaigrette, mozzarella, and toasted pumpkin seeds atop Boston lettuce.

Penn State week 5

This past week was very fun-filled! We had the privilege of going on a field trip with Chef Bill to Belleville, PA for an Amish market. I enjoyed getting to see a different culture and we were able to do some shopping at the flea market. There was also a livestock auction that was pretty entertaining. Being an Amish market, there were horse and buggies just about everywhere. I was amused with the horses “parked” next to the market.

Charming Bed and Breakfast on our way to the market 

Amish Transportation

We also had a culinary challenge this week. Our final project is planning a luncheon for all the staff members who have been involved in our internship experience. The main entrée for the event is a salad and is determined by the winner of the culinary challenge. The interns competed against one another by making a salad with any choice of greens, a protein, nuts, cheese, and homemade vinaigrette.

All of the entries by the interns 

As luck would have it, I was chosen the winner! My arugula salad will be served at the luncheon with a few tweaks and hopefully it will be a hit! 

Arugula salad with apricot vinaigrette, red quinoa, almonds, goat cheese and salmon

Time Flies When You're a Nittany Lion!

Hey Everyone,

My apologies for not posting in a while, there has been some emergencies at home and I have been back and forth quite often and haven't had the chance to get on a computer and blog but I promise i'll make up for it with this entry.

These past 2 weeks have been incredibly fun thanks to events like the Amish market field trip, live cattle auction trip, a pit stop at the Brookmere Farm Winery, the most interesting diversity training ever, training at the enormous warehouse and the famous bakery, as well as preparation for today's culinary challenge. Pictures mean a thousand words, so here they are. 

Just another tremendous scenery shot on my drive back into PA from NJ. 

As I mentioned in earlier blogs, the opportunity for eating to perform in terms of fitness and exercise here at Penn State is super easy. Here's one of the meals I grabbed on the go, a perfect balance of carbs, protein, and fats

As we drove into Bellville, PA towards the Amish market, landscape changed quickly, drifting more towards large land farming and dairy production

And this entire time I thought I had the coolest wheels in town

I wish I had brought a trailer with me because there were some great looking horses auctioned for $175-200 at the livestock and cattle auction in Bellville, PA

Or a pony works too

How about a 250 pound pig? It was funny to hear the kids go "wow thats cool",  and the announcer  frighten them by saying thats a lot of sausage and lunch ham right there

Literally, the only thing they weren't auctioning off at this thing were unicorns. They had anything from ponies to race horses, piglets to massive boars, veal to giant cows ready to be milked.

Bringing home a few goodies from the Brookemere Farm Winery

The beautiful scenery never ends in this place

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, today is the Culinary Challenge cook-off between the other interns and myself so I will spend the rest of the day mentally preparing to put together an incredible looking dish that I've taken from fitmencook.com and here's a picture of what it will look like, hope you guys like it.

Shrimp Ceviche with mango and avocado, yumm!