Structure

Students begin the 16-month program in the Fall semester and are enrolled concurrently in graduate courses and the Internship. Interns complete a ~6-week orientation at the beginning of the Fall semester and transition to supervised practice after orientation is complete. After Orientation is complete in the Fall, Mondays are reserved for class-day or any on-campus activities, and rotations are completed Tuesday-Friday. The internship program follows the TWU Academic Calendar for major Holiday breaks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break), unless otherwise coordinated with the DI Director, rotation site and student during Supervised Practice experiences. Individual Holidays are followed per the assigned rotation site’s calendar at the time the Holiday occurs. Supervised practice experiences continue through Spring and Summer and are completed near the end of the Summer. There is no break in rotations between the Spring and Summer semesters. Graduate coursework continues throughout and into an additional Fall semester to finish the Master’s degree. Didactic courses are offered as a combination of in-person, hybrid, or online modalities.

Click this link to see the course order. Refer to the Graduate Catalog for detailed breakdowns of the MS in Nutrition (Dietetics) and MS in Exercise and Sports Nutrition (Dietetics) program requirements.

A personal computer and access to reliable internet is required for program completion. Courses will be managed through an online learning management system (Canvas). The Houston Library has a computer lab with available equipment and supplies for use while on-campus. There is also technology support available for Canvas and other IT troubleshooting needs.

Supervised Practice content areas and sites

In supervised practice experiences, interns receive instruction from experienced preceptors. Affiliated facilities providing the major supervised practice experiences are located in the greater Houston metropolitan area within 60 miles of the TWU-Houston campus. The DI Director schedules the supervised practice rotations at sites with which the university has formalized affiliation agreements. Note that availability of sites can vary from year to year. Interns also have an elective rotation where they are encouraged to select an experience that reflects their area of interest and career goals as well as a staffing opportunity to return to a site of previous experience for extended growth and learning. In some specialty rotations, preceptors without large office space may have students complete some of the rotation projects from home with frequent contact via phone, video conference, or email. If any virtual/remote rotations are offered, they will compose less than 15% of the 1100 required internship hours.

Content Areas
- Orientation
- Clinical
- Foodservice Management
- Community
- Elective
- Staffing
Affiliations per Content Area
- Clinical/Hospital Foodservice
  - Baylor St. Luke’s Texas Medical Center
  - DaVita Dialysis centers
  - Harris Health System
    - Ben Taub
    - LBJ
    - Auxiliary Outpatient Clinics
  - Houston Family Nutrition
  - Houston Methodist
    - Outpatient Clinics
  - Memorial Hermann Health System (MHHS)
    - Greater Heights (MHGH)
    - Memorial City (MHMC)
    - Northeast (MHNE)
    - Pearland (MHPL)
    - Southeast (MHSE)
    - Southwest (MHSW)
    - Sugarland (MHSL)
    - Texas Medical Center (MHTMC)
  - St. Joseph Medical Center
- School Foodservice
  - Houston Independent School District
  - Fort Bend Independent School District
  - Galena Park Independent School District
  - Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
  - Alief ISD
  - Klein ISD
  - Clear Creek ISD
  - Dickinson ISD
  - Goose Greek ISD
  - Katy ISD
  - Pasadena ISD
  - Spring ISD
- Community Services
  - Houston Food Bank
  - Harris County Public Health-WIC
  - Menninger Clinic’s “The Gathering Place”
- Elective Rotation Practice Areas
  - Eating Disorders (Eating Recovery Center)
  - Pediatrics (Texas Children’s Hospital and Memorial Hermann TMC)
  - Oncology (MD Anderson, Memoria Hermann TMC)
  - Metabolics (Texas Children’s Hospital, UT Physicians TMC)
  - Burn, Transplant, Neuro, Cardiovascular, Surgical Intensive Care (Memorial Hermann TMC)
  - Bariatrics (Memorial Hermann Memorial City)
  - Sports (ESN Students only)(Memorial Hermann Rockets Sports Medicine Institute)
  - Project Management (Memorial Hermann System)
  - Nutrition Communications (Valerie DL)
  - Private Practice (Houston Family Nutrition)
  - Community Garden/Culinary Nutrition (UT School of Public Health)
  - Research (NASA)

Page last updated 9:18 AM, June 23, 2025