Personal Statement

Being a nutrition professional is something that I hold near and dear to my heart. First,

let me explain why I want to become a RD and what sparked my interest in nutrition. I started as

an undergraduate student at UNCG, and was not actually pursuing a degree in Human Nutrition

and Dietetics at the beginning. However, for the degree I was pursuing I had to take an

introduction to nutrition class, and I fell in love with that class content. Shortly after talking to

Laurie Allen who was the professor for that class and a RD herself, I realized becoming a

dietitian was what I wanted to aspire to be in the future. I also really enjoy cooking and baking

and I thought this was a great way to put that love into a professional career. All these things put

together is what inspired me to want to enter the dietetics profession.

Knowing that being a RD is what I want to do, I have tried to gain some experiences to

help me prepare for my career. One of these experiences was to create a bulletin board as a

mentee with my peers on Weight Stigma, for weight stigma awareness week, which was the last

week in September of 2020. With that said, myself and two other mentees did some research on

weight stigma, and came up with a design and layout to present the key information on a bulletin

board. This bulletin board that we created was on display for others to see in the nutrition

building at UNCG during this weight stigma awareness week. This project was done under the

supervision of my mentor, who was a dietetic intern at UNCG at the time. Also, I feel as though

I gained some experience with community nutrition for this project, especially since I had to

make sure we included information on the board that everyone (custodians, undergraduate

students, graduate students, and professor) would understand. Another experience I have had to

help me prepare for my career is being a participant in battle of the chefs at UNCG. During this

experience I collaborated with my group to come up with different menu items based on a
specific theme and secret ingredient we were required to include to execute/prepare and give to

the judge. I feel that this experience has given me a taste of what the food service side of being a

nutrition professional is like.

I have had a lot of experiences on campus to allow me to build my awareness. With that

said, I have some short- and long-term goals I hope to achieve as I continue to pursue becoming

a RD. One short-term goal is to receive my Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Human

Nutrition and Dietetics in May of 2022. Before that, I hope I can gain some more clinical or

community related nutritional experience working in a hospital or school in the spring of 2022.

After completing my degree, I plan to be able to complete a combined program where I complete

a dietetic internship (DI) and an online master’s simultaneously. My hope is that this program

will help me to gain experience, and continue my education in the nutrition field. After I

complete this program, I plan to take the RD exam to become a RD. After I earn my credentials,

my long-term goal is to be able to practice as a RD and maybe work with pediatrics or with

military communities.

Looking at my goals, I realize that I have areas I am strong in, as well as areas that I need

to improve while working on these goals. One of my strengths is to be passionate about the

nutrition field and to have knowledge on nutrition. Another strength is that I have a love for

children and a lot of experience working with kids in many different environments. However, I

feel like I have a weakness in communicating with actual patients. The main reason for this is

that Covid restrictions has caused an issue with me being in the field with actual patients, but I

am hopeful that soon I will be able to have time to get some more time with patients, covid

permitting.
 Knowing all this, I hope you realize that I have a burning passion for food and nutrition

and that I aspire to become a great RD one day, that can be helpful to many people. I hope to

eventually share my knowledge I gain through the years about nutrition with kids whom I love

working with, or with military families since I will be a part of one myself soon. I hope that I

can help them in the ways they need help, and make them realize useful ways to eat healthy and

make it fun. My next step on my journey after graduating undergrad school is to complete a

distance DI and online masters in a combined program like I previously mentioned. I want to do

a combined distance DI and masters so that I can gain more nutritional knowledge and

experience. I think doing a distance program is a good fit for me because my fiance is in the

military, and I want to be able to continue my education and experience wherever his career

takes us. Overall, I hope to make a difference one day as a RD either with kids or the military

community.