Community Rotation

I spent a week working with Sylvia Klinger, global nutrition entrepreneur and founder of Hispanic Food Communications. She and I were able to extensively discuss global nutrition, particularly for the Latino population. I created a weight management brochure tailored for the Latino population and translated it to both Spanish and Portuguese! Later on in the week I worked on my very first blog post about weight management. Finally, I was able to attend a joint meeting with Sylvia Klinger and Kelly Bristow, a dietitian at Bayer who works in a global agriculture role. It was fascinating to learn more about agriculture and to debunk many societally prevalent GMO fears.

I spent two weeks in various Butler County WIC locations. I was able to sit in on several participant counseling sessions and learned more about the documentation required for each of the visits. It was inspiring to see how participant-centered the dietitians were in their counseling, assessing their unique needs and knowledge gaps before providing nutrition education. I created a number of educational handouts to provide participants, such as one encouraging WIC parents to cook with their children, and another providing small meal and snack ideas (utilizing several WIC foods). Finally, I familiarized myself with several community resources available to WIC participants, such as Red Treehouse and Early Intervention.

I spent two weeks with Clem&Thyme Nutrition, a private practice made up of a team of dietitians. I was able to sit in on several of the counseling sessions with clients struggling with PCOS, diabetes, weight gain, emotional eating, and more. I especially enjoyed the dietitians' focus on providing whole-person care, touching on subjects such as sleep, exercise, and stress management in addition to nutrition. Throughout my time there, I compiled a list of 1- and 2-person recipes that are relatively quick and easy to make while also being balanced -- including protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables.